by Max Lucado
Assess your joy level. The prophet Jeremiah modeled the vigilance we need. He was nicknamed the “Weeping Prophet” because he was exactly that. His beloved nation had turned from God. But then he remembered the answer for his despair. “This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases” (Lamentations 3:21-22 ESV).
We choose what we remember. So, let’s remember our call to joy. Stay in the present moment. Harvard researchers discovered that unhappy people focus on what is not happening; happy people focus on what is happening. Wasn’t this the point Jesus made in the Sermon on the Mount? “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear” (Matthew 6:25 NIV). Don’t settle for a joyless life!
God Made Our Brains. He Can Retrain Our Brains.
Stuck in your head? Hounded by regrets? Weighed down by worry? Change is possible! The thoughts that have characterized your past need not characterize the rest of your life.
In Tame Your Thoughts, Max explores three key thought-management tools and then applies them to the most common thought problems: worry, guilt, anxiety, and other types of mental quicksand that threaten to trap us. God loves us too much to let us lead a life marked by poor thinking. He has not left us alone in this battle of the mind.
shared with permission
