Text: Php 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. 14 And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.
Joel C. Gregory writes:
"How many times have we had to reach the end of our own resources before we remembered to trust in God, the one steadfast resource of our lives? We're all in need of a spiritual exodus day by day. When our faith causes difficulties, our first response is to fall back on our familiar resources-people, things, self -and only when these do not help can we truly lean only upon God for our needs.
"I like what Dwight l. Moody said about Moses. Moody, had an unusual insight into Scripture. He said that Moses spent forty years in the king's palace thinking that he was somebody; then he lived forty years in the wilderness finding out that without God he was a nobody; finally he spent forty more years discovering how a nobody with God can be a somebody.
"And he was right. When Moses and the people found out they were nobodies without the resource of God, that's when the exodus began."
Psa 20:6 Now am I certain that the Lord gives salvation to his king; he will give him an answer from his holy heaven with the strength of salvation in his right hand. 7 Some put their faith in carriages and some in horses; but we will be strong in the name of the Lord our God. 8 They are bent down and made low; but we have been lifted up.
God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to produce rain, broken grain to give bread and broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is the broken Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.
Someone wrote:
- The twenties are the molding years when the young person forms those habits that will direct his career. Then he finishes his school work, stands before the altar, establishes a home, and looks the world in the face.
- The thirties are the years of discouragement. It is a hard and trying time. It is a time of battle without the dreams and poetry of youth.
- The forties are the years of vision, when a man finds himself, finishes his castles in the air, and knows the value of his dreams.
- In the fifties life comes to ripening. These should be the years of jubilee, and a man should do his best work then.
- At sixty, a man has committed enough mistakes to make him wise beyond his years. He should live better and do better work than in any other decade in his life. No man has a right to retire in the sixties; the world has a need for his wisdom.
- And in the seventies, some of the best work in the world has been done. It is the time when talent, experience, and insight combine to make a worthy and memorable life.
Psa_90:10 says, "The days of our years are threescore and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is there strength, labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."
The key I believe to living life to the full, is to live it with an unshakable trust: “but we will be strong in the name of the Lord our God”
The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins.
No person should allow another person to control his/her life. Circumstance can not take charge of your life. ‘Things’ happen. ‘Life’ happens. Bad things happen to good people.
It’s not about what happens to you – it’s about the way you respond to the things that happen to you.
Pro 25:28 A person without self-control is like a house with its doors and windows knocked out.
Have you ever seen an abandoned house – after vandals and hooligans got hold of it?
The Bible compares a person without self control to just that.
In order to avoid my house being vandalized and damaged, I have to protect it, I have to place guards around it if need be, in order to avoid permanent damage.
Pro 4:23 Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that's where life starts.
I can not leave my heart unprotected. I need to be so careful who I allow into my heart. Some will come in and take good care, but others will come in and create a mess, and when they leave they do not care about the damage they leave behind. Guess who needs to clean up and pick up the pieces.
Self-control helps me to protect that which is important to me.
Rom 12:1 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life, your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2 don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Self control comes with a sense of accountability.
- I am responsible for my actions.
- I determine the actions I am willing to take.
- I control the thoughts I entertain.
- I decide the path of life I want to travel on.
God has the best plan for my life, but I decide to follow that plan or not to follow it.
Joh 12:46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
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