Tag: thoughts

Entrée

Creative, Able, and Committed

The Manna Chef

You know those moments when you think about your life, even from childhood?  Well, today, I had that moment.  I was thinking about the start of the school year in second grade (yes, I can remember back that far!), when I was placed in the gifted program, “Creative, Able, and Committed.” 

Of course, back then, I didn’t think much about the title of the program; I just knew it meant I was going to another classroom for math and science.  (And later, I would realize that I had to do twice the classwork!)  However, today, God allowed me to reflect on the actual words: creative, able, and committed.  I am all of those things because He designed me that way.  And then, I began to focus on one word: committed. 

Proverbs 16:3 (NKJV) says, “Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.”

According to Merriam-Webster, commit means to entrust; to pledge or assign for use; to put in charge.  Establish means to institute permanently; to make firm or stable; to set up; to gain acceptance.  Works are tasks or jobs; achievements; everything possessed, available, or belonging to.

Let’s look back at the Scripture:  Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.

In other words, entrust God with everything you are and do, and He will set you up for success because your thoughts are shaped by Him.

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Entrée

Who Told You That?

The Manna Chef

I recently asked, “Whose steps are you following?” to remind you to be intentional in following the leading of the Holy Spirit.  It’s a great reminder that nothing in our lives happens by chance and that we need to be aware at all times of the effects of our actions.  But today, I want to go even deeper.  If you’ve ever had to deal with negative thoughts, then this message is for you.

I remember many years ago reading about “negative self-talk.”  At the time, I was teaching middle schoolers, and it was a message that was near and dear to my heart.  I firmly believed (and I still do) that speaking words of life into our young people is vital to their development.  But it doesn’t stop there.  We need those same words of life.  And we need to speak them constantly.  (You have power of life and death right in your own mouth, according to Proverbs 18:21.)

This pandemic has altered our daily lives.  Many of us are working from home.  Others may not be working at all, while some are working nonstop as essential staff.  Don’t believe for a second that the enemy is not waiting by to speak all kinds of lies to you.  He wants to plant ideas of hopelessness and despair.  He wants you to be paralyzed from fear and for you to succumb to the pressure that is all around you.  He wants you to be depressed from being constantly inundated with bad news and frightening statistics.  Sisters, he wants desperately to defeat you.  Remember, he has three jobs: to steal, to kill, and to destroy, so you have to be prepared to defeat him. 

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