Positive thinking

After reading Tommy Newberry's THE 4:8 PRINCIPLE, it was an easy transition to read 40 DAYS TO A JOY-FILLED LIFE: LIVING THE 4:9 PRINCIPLE.  As the title says, the reader is supposed to read the book one chapter a day at a time, which I did.  I liked reading a book that way.  Rick Warren's THE PURPOSE-DRIVING LIFE is done like that, too.  It helps me absorb what I've read to read just a little bit every day.

Newberry's book is not just a book; it's also a workbook.  More than anything, it helps me focus on things that are lovely, just, of good report, and so on.  After going through some really rough patches here recently, I needed to change my focus of thinking.  I'm not all the way THERE as far as keeping my thoughts 4:8 focused (that's Philippians 4:8, in case you don't know), but at least I know I'm making progress and that Newberry's book has helped me with that!

I do so want a Joy-filled life

Philippians 4:8:  "And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."  (NLT)

Tommy Newberry's book THE 4:8 PRINCIPLE:  THE SECRET TO A JOY-FILLED LIFE doesn't really say much of anything that anyone who has been a believer for as long as I have hasn't already heard before.  With that being said, though, I want to clarify that because the Bible is the living, breathing Word of God, any time we can study God's Word does not return void.  It is ALWAYS valuable to a person's Christian walk with the Lord to be reminded of such wonderful truths.

It is so easy to get caught up in the daily activities of LIFE as well as just the daily trials of life.  When we get too far into them without keeping the Word the main focus, it is also easy to begin thinking of things that aren't true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, or admirable.  We begin thinking and believing lies as well as negative thoughts about our own lives as well as about the lives of the people around us.

I know that I have let hurts as well as just the day-to-day dealings with those around me to affect me negatively so that I've begun to think and feel negatively towards certain people in my life--important people.  As I've read through Newberry's book, I've thought about these negative thoughts and feelings and where they've come.  The reality is that they've come from a bad, negative place.

Have my feelings been hurt?  Absolutely.

Do the people who have hurt my feelings deserve for me to think about them as being terrible, awful people who deserve to have terrible awful things happen to them?  Not in the slightest.

But I have let negative thinking get in the way of dealing with the problems, the hurts, and finding my way to forgiveness.  I hope and pray that I am now at a place where my thoughts have been turned around and that these relationships will be as well.