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Greetings!
"Faith will stimulate life renewal and life change; then life, vigorous and new,
will flush out all the old, tired, desultory feelings and let you live, really live.
So try faith and watch what happens." - Norman Vincent Peale
Su mmer's light, longer days and the warm azure skies - we are on the threshold of change that will make way for growth. Lately, I've been contemplating the threshold - this in-between place where change is eminent.
The threshold allows us to be still for a moment - thinking and feeling one door closing to the past and thus opening a new one to the future. Yet, if we stay in this threshold of neutral we will not step forward and grow.
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
- Philippians 3:13-14
It takes faith to cross a threshold - whether it's a physical doorway or an entrance to your heart, mind and soul. Yet one thing is certain. When you cross the threshold there will be a shift that could change in a small way, or create something bigger than you ever imagined.
Many of us don't care much for change. We like things as they are, comfortable! But staying comfortable keeps us in neutral -stuck and unable to grow. 'Just when I got used to things, something changed'. It's possible that we may even get accustomed to negative self-talk and negative thinking, and may not notice when it spills over into our conversations. Whatever the habit, an action or thought process, it is possible to change if you want to.
"You can if you think you can." - Norman Vincent Peale
We can speculate what change may bring, yet we never really know for sure until we surrender and walk in faith. It does take a certain amount of faith to let go, to step out of our comfort zone, to go with the flow and give in to God's guidance. We can, and we can do this as if God is easing us to where we are to be. No matter what is changing around us, Jesus loves us unequivocally and will guide us.
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." - Hebrews 13:8
Years ago, as I was reading The Power of Positive Thinking, I wondered if I could ever flip the switch and turn off negative words and thoughts, replacing them with positive ones. When I read the chapter - New Thoughts Can Remake You, I experimented with the process of filling my mind with fresh, new creative thoughts of faith, love and goodness, and this alone helped reduce the haphazard thoughts to remake my life.
The next time you find yourself standing on the 'threshold' of a negative thought pattern, pause and quickly insert the polar opposite thoughts and words to change that habit. You will create a positive outcome for yourself. You will change your life and there is no better time than now in this season of growth. It's the season of change magnified.
"Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children,
you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 18:3
 One of the most powerful tools for embracing change, written by Dr. Peale, is compiled in a 'forty-day' booklet called Thought Conditioners. This booklet is based on words from the Bible and is capable of revolutionizing the entire personality.
It contains 40 creative and vital passages for you to take into your possession to resist the temptation of negativity that keeps you standing in neutral. It is interesting how Jesus, in His own deepest spiritual experience, spent 40 days in the desert withstanding temptation. Now you have a tool to resist the temptation of remaining stuck in negative thought patterns.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Believe You Will Receive: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." - Matthew 7:7
This is a very practical technique of prayer. It works amazingly. One reason we do not get answers to our prayers is that we ask, but do not really expect to receive. We are expert askers, but inexpert receivers. This spiritual formula tells us to ask and then immediately conceive of ourselves as receiving. For example, to be free from fear, ask the Lord to free you. Then believe that He has immediately done so. The minute you express your faith by sincerely asking Him for a blessing and believe your prayer is answered, your prayer is answered.
Leave Destructive Thoughts Behind: "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." - Romans 12:2
People often manufacture their own unhappiness by the negative manner in which they think about things. Work with your mind, exercise disciplinary control and re-slant your thoughts for happier living. Drain the mind by consciously conceiving of yourself as dropping out every destructive thought, every fear, every inferiority feeling. Picture your mind as completely empty. Then start filling it with thoughts of God and of Christ, thoughts about every good and pleasant thing. Practice this new habit regularly twice every day, morning and evening, to counteract the older and negative habit of allowing unhappy things to occupy your mind. In due course, unhappy thoughts will not feel at home in your mind and happy thoughts will transform you.
CLICK HERE to print this booklet, or email me and I will send it to you.
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