Daily Bible Reading - Monday - June 7th

Its come to the end of David’s life.  What an amazing story about David, he truly was a normal down to earth guy, he had many faults and did wrong at times but he knew when to admit he was wrong and repent, he even went through times of punishment but he endured it all and had a long successful life.  When I think about David’s reign as king he must have been under and extreme amount of pressure at times, don’t you think?  David encountered many crisis but eventually came through them with the Lords help.  That really got me to thinking about my own life and the pressures and trials I’ve been through and one’s I face today.  When encountering a crisis, we tend to fail to keep our minds on the Lord, at least that’s how it seems to be for me.  I tend to focus on the negative and only see what is going wrong.  Instead of believing my situation can have a positive outcome, I always seem to doubt that I will ever recover.  Focusing on the problem won’t do any of us any good.  In fact, read this next statement carefully, the more you think about the problem instead of the Problem Solver the weaker your faith becomes.  Isn’t that so true?  To rise above pressure we have to think on the right things.  We must replace negative thoughts with good positive thoughts.  Doubt has to be replaced with faith.  You know problems can become small or they can become great depending on the way we think about them.  You probably know someone who has face a small challenge and they obsessed about the problem until it became a huge mountain in their life.  That’s been me at times for sure.  This is what the devil wants.  He wants to keep us looking at the problem instead of looking at the Problem Solver, God, and His word.  A good example in the bible of this is when Jesus gave the single command of “come" to Peter and he jumped out of the boat during a violent storm and walked on the choppy sea.  He continued walking on the water as long as he maintained an unwavering gaze on Christ, he kept himself focused on Jesus.  But when Peter took his eyes of Jesus for a split second and looked at how strong the storm was he began to sink, he focused on the problem instead of keeping his eyes on the Problem Solver.  Our success in the midst of storms is determined by how well we can control our thoughts.  We need to determine what we think about and how we react to negative situations, if we do that we’ll be on the right track to victory. 

Today’s Reading

1 Kings 2:1-3:2
Acts 5:1-42
Psalm 125:1-5
Proverbs 16:25

Daily Devotional

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Thinking about things that meet these qualifications will give you victory in your thought life.  And God has given us plenty of things in His Word that meet all of these qualifications and conditions.  Focusing on those things instead of focusing on negative cir****tances will help you overcome the pressures of life. Be determined to focus on the positive today.

Today’s Thought:  Thank you God you help me keep my mind focused on the positive and not the negative and thank you for helping lead a victorious thought life.