As a Man Thinketh

[tommy2]

Jesus said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whosoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies, and whosoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25)

……….

It is said that one little flower has been given a gift which most humans never receive. It is perfectly content to be just itself. It hasn't been programmed from birth, as you and I have, to be satisfied or dissatisfied with anything. Flowers seem to have the very thing which us humans strive our entire life to find.

..........

My question is: How can we humans rise above our current circumstances? Is there an internal awareness which we just weren't born with, or what? And can we find strength to bring hope to ourselves within the presence of unhappiness or even despair and suffering?

You see, all feelings are no more than chosen attitudes, experienced in the mind, even though most of us think exactly the contrary. It is the human way of looking at any and all life situations and then choosing what will let linger in our thoughts and feelings.

Happiness, unhappiness, total joy, or even the worst-case scenario of despair, are mental processes which have been applied to the human experience and then recognized as an attitude. Desolation and hope are both inner visions which are chosen by the participant.

And, in MY way of thinking, I CAN CHOOSE to tell myself, "I am feeling down today." or, "I am feeling down today BUT I'll talk to Jesus about it." There IS a GIANT of leaps here, if one CHOOSES to consider it.

First of all, I am not talking about optimism or pessimism but, rather, the fact that we can OURSELVES put into or out of our minds ANY thought we wish. I choose to talk to my Savior when times are right, or aren't right for me.

..........

I want this post to state: "The other-than-really-great times in my life can be approached or withdrawn from, just like my experience with God our Father in Heaven." Yes, the choice to believe in Him is the choice to live. I say this to you because our act of "choosing" is a conditioned response which is totally driven by our habitual thoughts, which we choose to hang onto. This act of choosing then keeps us fixated, or attached, to our gloom or our happiness, yet I honestly feel that many, many folk fail to realize that they CAN choose EITHER path to be attached to, in their mental habits. You see, it is extremely common for folk to build their lives upon the mistaken notion that without certain thoughts, things, events or people, they cannot be happy or free. It's almost like so many people are pre-programmed to be unhappy, or think that THEY are the source of their happiness. Thusly, they become conditioned to believe that scarcity of what they want in life is an excuse for their unhappiness or their despair. And, in order to possibly transcend this cycle of attachment we surely MUST remember to remind ourselves of the difference between how we see ourselves and how GOD sees us! I am saying to practice NOT saying to yourself or thinking to yourself that you need a particular person, thing or event in your life in order to be free of your unhappiness. As GIANT of a task as this may appear to be, we CAN choose it.

We CAN love and feel peaceful and unthreatened. THIS is precisely how God loves you and I !!!!!! Yes, unconditionally and without attachments. Please don't talk to yourself constantly about what is NOT going right in your life! And the ONLY way I see to do this is to step back in your mind VERY often, just to notice what you see there. Yes, WHAT THOUGHTS ARE IN YOUR MIND?? Unhappiness and suffering begin to end when you stop thinking of your problems as suffering and unhappiness. Take the time to write yourself a few notes on little post-its, OK? Write down something like, "Remember God", or, "I AM not alone." I can honestly say that most of the things that once caused me to despair and suffer in my life were my greatest moments of growth and my first introductions into devoted time with The Lord.

..........

Psychologists say that depression is a contemporary phenomenon. Everybody is talking about it, it seems. Data I've read says that a good 20% of folk in developed countries suffer from it, especially clinical depression. But, from my own experience of depression over the last 40 years, I choose to define depression as a choice. Yes, the choice of thought habits. Yet, our culture chooses to take pills to reduce the symptoms of hopelessness, poor appetite, no self-esteem, sleeplessness, obesity, etc. Supposedly the pills attack this or that chemical imbalance. But why is it that data also tells us that the "under-developed" nations of the world report FAR less cases of depression? Could it be that the people in the developed nations have access to more products and services but just can't afford them, so they get all weird all about? You're surely going to think that I'm crazy here, but the mass media of T.V. exposes us CONSTANTLY to all the pretty, happy and entertaining folk who SUPPOSEDLY have all this stuff that we don't, that we REALLY can't afford, anyway, in the current financial situation most of us find ourselves in! Is this a nutzy statement or what? I'm saying, in other words, that you can't fret over "not-having" something if aren't CONSTANTLY telling yourself that you'd REALLY like to have it but just can't afford to buy it!

The point of this post is that we stimulate our own desires. Be it "stuff" of the world or our God in Heaven Who lives in us through His Holy Spirit ............ one or the other we define as meaningful for us. We RUN to the dollar or we RUN to God. I'm sure this sounds so "churchy" and all, and you're surely thinking right now, "Bull!! I can have BOTH my stuff and God, and still live the life God wants me to !!!" Right? So, I ask, "Which one of the two do you think of the the most?" Be honest with yourself. No one can hear your thoughts here except God now, OK? "WHAT are you devoted to?"

I ask this last question VERY firmly because I AM SURE that it makes all the difference in the world, IN GOD'S WORLD.

..........

Dear Lord, please receive my gratitude for Your telling me to hear You in Your Words and my meditations of Your Word. What I harbor in my mind affects ALL of my life. YOU are my medication and I choose to think of YOU and not my problems and my worries. YOU are my solution, Lord. Please help all of us humans to see this more clearly each day, God, through Your Word and our growing fondness of You!

..........

"Where is your appetite?", I ask you. Don't let your worry eat you up from the inside, out. Flash back now, please, on the Scripture at the beginning of this post, OK?

And may our Newborn Savior and King speed you to this reality!

 

[student ad x]

-MOD HAT ON-


Howdy folks, this thread has been moved from New Member Intro's to the Deeper Fellowship Forum.

-MOD HAT OFF-
​

 

[godisreal36]

Hello brother thanks for the post.

I often wonder if this wide spread depression isn't really a symptom of our stressful materialistic society and a lack of Gods direction and help. I have suffered from depression and still do i suppose., i was never diagnosed or treated. However i have observed many others and their "miracle happy pills" and i see them as almost being nothing more than useless Voodoo handed out by witch doctors. These depression medications do have a good purpose at times though. Sure taking a pill is better than wanting to kill yourself, but the question is.. why do you want to kill yourself or why are you depressed? But instead the usual question is "what kind of health care insurance do you have" and "do you want regular or generic medicine?" Pills are not good treatment for depression in my opinion. But as i said, Ive never taken depression meds and cannot say for sure, only that i see no good done by them.

I feel like God helps depression more than pills. Not that pills are not good, just that i don't think these pills work very well. Maybe our sin catches up with us and the"happy" pill only help silence your conscience, it makes you feel happy for a moment but it ends up failing because possibly it wars not against depression but God himself who wishes to help us instead. Some people are not ready to let God help them, not ready to listen to God, for them they make pills. God can heal better than a pill can. I'm not saying that medicine in bad, only that all this depression medicine doesn't work properly and it serves to make drug companies rich and keep you in depression the rest of your life. You keep the pills world, i got Jesus who lifts my spirits when I'm depressed. A pill is a poor substitute. We must identify and resolve the problem that causes depression. I am not a doctor, however my master Jesus is called "the great physician". All opinions are my own and don't necessarily reflect the views of God or medicine only my honest opinion.

 

[gideons300]

Jesus said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whosoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies, and whosoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25)

……….

It is said that one little flower has been given a gift which most humans never receive. It is perfectly content to be just itself. It hasn't been programmed from birth, as you and I have, to be satisfied or dissatisfied with anything. Flowers seem to have the very thing which us humans strive our entire life to find.

..........

My question is: How can we humans rise above our current circumstances? Is there an internal awareness which we just weren't born with, or what? And can we find strength to bring hope to ourselves within the presence of unhappiness or even despair and suffering?

You see, all feelings are no more than chosen attitudes, experienced in the mind, even though most of us think exactly the contrary. It is the human way of looking at any and all life situations and then choosing what will let linger in our thoughts and feelings.

Happiness, unhappiness, total joy, or even the worst-case scenario of despair, are mental processes which have been applied to the human experience and then recognized as an attitude. Desolation and hope are both inner visions which are chosen by the participant.

And, in MY way of thinking, I CAN CHOOSE to tell myself, "I am feeling down today." or, "I am feeling down today BUT I'll talk to Jesus about it." There IS a GIANT of leaps here, if one CHOOSES to consider it.

First of all, I am not talking about optimism or pessimism but, rather, the fact that we can OURSELVES put into or out of our minds ANY thought we wish. I choose to talk to my Savior when times are right, or aren't right for me.

..........

I want this post to state: "The other-than-really-great times in my life can be approached or withdrawn from, just like my experience with God our Father in Heaven." Yes, the choice to believe in Him is the choice to live. I say this to you because our act of "choosing" is a conditioned response which is totally driven by our habitual thoughts, which we choose to hang onto. This act of choosing then keeps us fixated, or attached, to our gloom or our happiness, yet I honestly feel that many, many folk fail to realize that they CAN choose EITHER path to be attached to, in their mental habits. You see, it is extremely common for folk to build their lives upon the mistaken notion that without certain thoughts, things, events or people, they cannot be happy or free. It's almost like so many people are pre-programmed to be unhappy, or think that THEY are the source of their happiness. Thusly, they become conditioned to believe that scarcity of what they want in life is an excuse for their unhappiness or their despair. And, in order to possibly transcend this cycle of attachment we surely MUST remember to remind ourselves of the difference between how we see ourselves and how GOD sees us! I am saying to practice NOT saying to yourself or thinking to yourself that you need a particular person, thing or event in your life in order to be free of your unhappiness. As GIANT of a task as this may appear to be, we CAN choose it.

We CAN love and feel peaceful and unthreatened. THIS is precisely how God loves you and I !!!!!! Yes, unconditionally and without attachments. Please don't talk to yourself constantly about what is NOT going right in your life! And the ONLY way I see to do this is to step back in your mind VERY often, just to notice what you see there. Yes, WHAT THOUGHTS ARE IN YOUR MIND?? Unhappiness and suffering begin to end when you stop thinking of your problems as suffering and unhappiness. Take the time to write yourself a few notes on little post-its, OK? Write down something like, "Remember God", or, "I AM not alone." I can honestly say that most of the things that once caused me to despair and suffer in my life were my greatest moments of growth and my first introductions into devoted time with The Lord.

..........

Psychologists say that depression is a contemporary phenomenon. Everybody is talking about it, it seems. Data I've read says that a good 20% of folk in developed countries suffer from it, especially clinical depression. But, from my own experience of depression over the last 40 years, I choose to define depression as a choice. Yes, the choice of thought habits. Yet, our culture chooses to take pills to reduce the symptoms of hopelessness, poor appetite, no self-esteem, sleeplessness, obesity, etc. Supposedly the pills attack this or that chemical imbalance. But why is it that data also tells us that the "under-developed" nations of the world report FAR less cases of depression? Could it be that the people in the developed nations have access to more products and services but just can't afford them, so they get all weird all about? You're surely going to think that I'm crazy here, but the mass media of T.V. exposes us CONSTANTLY to all the pretty, happy and entertaining folk who SUPPOSEDLY have all this stuff that we don't, that we REALLY can't afford, anyway, in the current financial situation most of us find ourselves in! Is this a nutzy statement or what? I'm saying, in other words, that you can't fret over "not-having" something if aren't CONSTANTLY telling yourself that you'd REALLY like to have it but just can't afford to buy it!

The point of this post is that we stimulate our own desires. Be it "stuff" of the world or our God in Heaven Who lives in us through His Holy Spirit ............ one or the other we define as meaningful for us. We RUN to the dollar or we RUN to God. I'm sure this sounds so "churchy" and all, and you're surely thinking right now, "Bull!! I can have BOTH my stuff and God, and still live the life God wants me to !!!" Right? So, I ask, "Which one of the two do you think of the the most?" Be honest with yourself. No one can hear your thoughts here except God now, OK? "WHAT are you devoted to?"

I ask this last question VERY firmly because I AM SURE that it makes all the difference in the world, IN GOD'S WORLD.

..........

Dear Lord, please receive my gratitude for Your telling me to hear You in Your Words and my meditations of Your Word. What I harbor in my mind affects ALL of my life. YOU are my medication and I choose to think of YOU and not my problems and my worries. YOU are my solution, Lord. Please help all of us humans to see this more clearly each day, God, through Your Word and our growing fondness of You!

..........

"Where is your appetite?", I ask you. Don't let your worry eat you up from the inside, out. Flash back now, please, on the Scripture at the beginning of this post, OK?

And may our Newborn Savior and King speed you to this reality!

Tommy, you make great points and we in the west, at least, have been indoctinated into the world's view of success and what is important. Yet, as I read of the words of Jesus Himself, it is clear we are not asked to walk as the world, that if we love the world, the love of the father is not in us.

We are to walk as strangers and pilgrims through this world, in it but not of it. This is not only difficult, but impossible, if left to our own strength and determination. As long as self control is our efforts to gain the victory, rather than the fruit of walking in it, we will wander in the wildreness of unbelief.

But we are not left powerless to overcome and God wants to tell us to not be discouraged, nor to lack faith. He wants us to know that He will come and save us, save us from the world and its lies, save us from religion that has a form of godliness but denies the power thereof, save us from ourselves, our flesh.

He wants to whisper to us, deep inside the inner man we seldom reveal to others:

"Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world."

Why is this such wonderful news? Because if we will sink down in humility and need and reach out to our loving Father in faith, even weak mustard seed sized faith, His overcoming will become ours.

Tommy, I firmly believe we are seeing the beginnings of the fulfillment of Ezekiel 37, the vision of the valley of dry bones. We see here and there, more and more, the dry bones beginning to rattle, individuals throwing off their unbelief, losing their lives to find His and speak only of their saviour, and His ability to save to the uttermost. They cannot be satisfied any longer with empty words and powerless religion. The Holy Spirit is inside them, leading them, guiding them into all truth.

Going backwards into Ezekiel 36, where God promised the new covenant, He promised to cause us to walk in obedience. Oh, if we could but wrap our heads and hearts around those words! Salvation is of the Lord. Our part is to yield and believe His amazing promises.

He finished this with the following amazing prophecy:

"I shall yet be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them."

Ezekiel 36:37

Dear readers, any who have wandered into this post, those perhaps weighed down with sin, those tired of their rebellious flesh, those longing for the God who "saves to the uttermost". May your heart be comforted with these words. It is Christ in us that is the secret of victory. It is God who wants to change us, fill us, free us. It is His work, not ours. Let us remember that those who entered into the rest ceased from their own labors even as God did from His.

Blessings,

Bruce

 

[gideons300]

-MOD HAT ON-​

Howdy folks, this thread has been moved from New Member Intro's to the Deeper Fellowship Forum.​

-MOD HAT OFF-​

Hi brother. I wanted to thank you for your wisdom in moving this post as I would not even have seen it if you had not made the move. Good moderator work!

Bruce