In this series on “How Big Is Your But?” we’ve gone through the problem with worry, fear and disobedience that can come
from that little word – “but”. We’ve started to look at how we can overcome worry, which is the first step in stopping fear which leads to disobedience. Last time I wrote about Agree God Cares. Today we look at our active part – choosing to pray about everything.

2. Pray About Everything

Philippians 4:6-7  (NLT)
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Here’s a little formula to remember: Worry replaced by Prayer equals Trust.

Here’s some steps you can take to make it easier to pray about everything.

1. Make it a habit to think about what you think about. When you find yourself thinking about things you worry or fear, turn it over to pray about the truth about God and His promises for you.
2. Don’t try to stop worrying. How can you stop thinking about something by thinking about not thinking about it? All you end up doing is to put condemnation on yourself when you start to worry. Instead learn to take those worries and turn them into fervent, effective prayers.
3. Keep your worries for your prayer time. If you find yourself worried or fearful in the day, put it off until your prayer time. You can train yourself to put off those thoughts until later. You can even tell them, “Not now”. If you find you can’t put those worries off, start your prayer time then and there.
4. Don’t give up. Caleb was wholehearted in his pursuit of the promise of God. We need to be as well. It’s not that we pray once, or prayed a lot a long time ago. We need to have the different Spirit that Caleb had and pray always and not give up. Do you have your answer yet? Then don’t stop praying because “it doesn’t work” keep praying you will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Now it may be obvious to you what kind of prayer I’m talking about. But if it isn’t I’ll explain more in the next post.

How do you handle worry? Posting it in the comments will help future readers know what might work for them.

photo credit: Dryad & Sprite Photography

I don’t usually pass on emails I get sent. But this one made me smile.

How to keep a woman happy….

It’s not difficult to make a woman happy.

A man only needs to be:

1. A friend

2. A companion

3. A lover

4. A brother

5. A father

6. A master

7. A chef

8. An electrician

9. A carpenter

10. A plumber

11. A mechanic

12. A decorator

13. A stylist

14. A sexologist

15. A gynecologist

16. A psychologist

17. A pest exterminator

18. A psychiatrist

19. A healer

20. A good listener

21. An organizer

22. A good father

23. Very clean

24. Sympathetic

25. Athletic

26. Warm

27. Attentive

28. Gallant

29. Intelligent

30. Funny

31. Creative

32. Tender

33. Strong

34. Understanding

35. Tolerant

36. Prudent

37. Ambitious

38. Capable

39. Courageous

40. Determined

41. True

42. Dependable

43. Passionate

44. Compassionate

WITHOUT FORGETTING TO:

45. Give her compliments regularly

46. Love shopping

47. Be honest

48. Be very rich

49. Not stress her out

50. Not look at other girls

AND AT THE SAME TIME, YOU MUST ALSO:

51. Give her lots of attention, but expect little yourself

52. Give her lots of time, especially time for herself

53. Give her lots of space, never worrying about where she goes

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT:

54. Never to forget:

* birthdays

* anniversaries

* arrangements she makes

HOW TO MAKE A MAN HAPPY

1. Leave him alone

Ladies (and men), I’d love to have you add to the list of How to Make A Man Happy…be as funny as you can be. Maybe it will be another post.

Truth:

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you,all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Isaiah 26:3 (New Living Translation)

Thought:

When we were in New Zealand, everyone was so laid-back compared with what we were used to in North America. When you signaled to change lanes on a busy motorway, people would actually give way to you. It was astounding.

Few were in a hurry. “No worries” is the standard reply. No one seemed busy… unless you were in the church.

I spoke to some of my pastor friends about this: “How can you reach a culture that’s laid-back, when you seem to take pride in being busy?” I suppose what I meant was, how can the church teach peace when they don’t experience it?

I’m not pointing fingers here. In North America it’s so much worse. We add church programs into a busy schedule and feel holiest when we are close to burnout. How can we have “feet fitted with the gospel of peace” when we don’t have peace?

But we can have peace. It’s our choice to obey God.

We can fix our thoughts on Him (Isaiah 26:3) and take all of our requests to Him with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6-8). We can forgive others for our sake and choose to live un-offended at God. We can cease striving and give up our right to understand so we can have the peace that passes understanding.

So will you?

Prayer:

Lord, in my weakness You are strong and I need Your strength to help me choose peace. I need Your peace to share Your good news. I need Your peace to calm me in the storm. I need Your peace so others will see Your goodness and greatness in me.  I choose today to seek peace and pursue it.

Challenge:

Take everything you are worrying about and thank God for the answers that are promised in His word. Meditate on Matthew 6:7-34.

Declaration:

I choose to reflect the light of the Son to the side of the world that’s away from the Son. I choose to put on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

As you consider fasting from negativity, it’s good we share some of the scriptures you can investigate.

Study the context of these verses. Ask more mature followers of Christ to help you understand what they mean. These verses come without commentary, so ask the Holy Spirit to teach you all things as you let the Word read you.

Don’t excuse yourself from putting them into practice, but pray about how you can work them into your life. Know that this list is not all encompassing. God may be asking more of you than what I’ve come up with in my study.

So let’s look at the thoughts the Bible says we shouldn’t have in our lives.

And then he added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.” Mark 7:20-23 (New Living Translation)

1. Self-Condemnation Proverbs 4:23
2. Un-forgiveness Colossians 3:13
3. Being Offended at God Luke 7:23
4. Judgmental Attitudes Romans 14:4
5. Rebellion 1 Peter 2:13-17
6. Fear 2 Timothy 1:7
7. Worry Matthew 6:25-29
8. Pride Proverbs 3:7
9. Bitterness Ephesians 4:31
10. Discouragement Joshua 1:8-9
11. Feeling Overwhelmed Isaiah 43:1-2
12. Condemnation Romans 8:1
13. Anxiousness Philippians 4:6
14. Anxiety 1 Peter 5:7

But the Bible also tells us what thoughts we should have on our minds. We can train ourselves to have these thoughts once we know they’re what the Father wants for us. Paul told the Phillipians (4:8) to fix their thoughts on what is:

1. true
2. honorable
3. right
4. pure
5. lovely
6. admirable
7. excellentand
8. worthy of praise

We’ve got resources to help you make it a habit for you. It really is a better way to live. Love to hear how you stay focused on the positive. Leave your comments below.

Giving up every thought, word and action that is contrary to the will of the Father expressed in Scripture is not an easy challenge.

When we stop to consider our thoughts that aren’t God we can think it’s impossible to change – it’s not, but it can seem that way.

Too many of us use words that condemn instead of words that bring life. I’ll be giving you examples of both in the next few posts in this topic. The list can seem insurmountable – it’s not; you really can change your words.

Actions can be habits that have become ingrained. Changing actions means creating new habits – it’s one of the reasons I encourage people to fast from negativity for 40 days. It takes 21 days to form a new habit; 40 days help shape a character.

I’ve put together a number of tools that will help you live Life Above the Negativity. Of course there is the book and the daily emails. The blog posts will start being devotionals in a couple of days and you can always come to the home page of RevTrev.com and select the category Life Above the Negativity from the spinning sphere (I love that plugin). Until Easter 2010, you can sign up for weekly emails from RevTrev.com and be able to download the eBook Life Above the Negativity – from 10 minutes a day.

But I also need to let you know about a couple of really cool and effective tools to help you change your thinking.

The first is the Bible… OK, I know that’s not original with me. But the simple fact is, the Bible says:

Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].  Romans 12:2 (Amplified Bible)

That transformation comes through faith, and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

So, to help you regularly read the Bible, I’ve created 40 Day Bible reading plans. Pick the one that suits your reading style (some are longer and some are shorter) as well as the portion of the Bible you want to read. I have about half a dozen more to put up and I will when I have the time. Use these 40 Day plans when ever you want. It really does motivate you to read the Bible. I use the one I created to read the OT once and NT twice in a year… and I can usually do it in three months.

The second tool I’ve been able to provide (thanks to the Personal Promise Bible) is a personalized Identity in Christ for Men and Women and a personalized book of Ephesians for Men and Women. Just type in your name in the appropriate form, click the button and print off the page. These are extremely powerful tools for you to know who you are in Christ and the love the Father has for you.

I love hearing how fasting from negativity has encouraged people. For the record… personally… so far this fast is providing ample opportunity for me to chose to be negative. I’ve done these enough to know that’s a very good (although presently painful) sign.

Blessings

Trevor

It’s a hilarious story I heard at my Grandma’s funeral. If you knew her, you’d know how embarrassed she would have been when it happened. Her church was putting together a cookbook or something like that and she was asked to include her favorite verse.

Well, in at least two places in her house she had plaques with Isaiah 26:3 written to remind her of the peace she had at her disposal. When life happened and troubles came, she could remind herself of the promise of God. Peace was so much of her character; it was an obvious verse to include in the cookbook.

Somehow the verse was put in wrong and someone looked up the reference by her name. It was Isaiah 20:4 “So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.”

Needless to say she was quite taken back when she was asked why it was her favorite verse.

We didn’t have peace in New Zealand. I was turned down for jobs I was over qualified for, qualified for, and capable of doing. “Why God did you call us down here?” I couldn’t adequately describe it at the time, but I knew I didn’t give up everything just to re-establish ourselves in a new country, doing the same thing we could be doing at home.

I had an idea for a business I was getting excited about but one Sunday out-of-the-blue God said “It’s a waste of time.” I took it hard. But God was the one I wanted to keep in step with so I gave it back to him.

The next morning I was about to start on a ministry website I had agreed to set up, but I knew I needed to talk to God. I went for a walk and poured my complaint out to God.

It ended with a cry from my heart: “What do you want me to do?” The response was instant and was without doubt the voice of God. He said “I’ve given you time to write, why are you doing everything but?”

I didn’t worry about fitting society’s expectation any longer. God had commissioned me and when I heard his voice, I had complete peace to do his will. We’d all have a lot less stress, if we waited on God to hear his voice. How much time do you give him to speak to you?

Would you describe your life as one of peace?

-Trevor Lund