Thinking Lovely Thoughts.

Something has been on my mind lately, and as I have found out I am not the only one. This is as battle I fight and I think anyone living in this world has fought this battle. The battle is against negativity. We live among people who dwell on everything that is wrong in their life and everyone else's life. If you look at the headines it is never positive. If you read Philippians 4:8 it says, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. (KJV) This is not a request, it is a directive. We are to think lovely thoughts. I have found that even in my deepest darkest moments I can find something good in it because I have Jesus to lean on. Sometimes all I can do is pray and plead for divine intervention and thank God for the fact that he knows all about me and what I need. Recently someone at church testified and said that they did not even want to give satan anything to be glad about by stating how he had been fighting them. I sure do not want satan to be happy about his efforts to discourage me, neither do I want him to over hear me say it out loud. If we dwell on our discouragement we breed more discouragement. I will admit I have been guilty of doing this over and over again. This is something that God is helping me with, he is gracious to provide the strength to with-stand the temptation to complain. A practice I have made is when I am feeling down I go to the scripture and find a verse that lifts me up, I then share that with others. It is such a blessing to me when I find that verse helped someone else and encouraged them The Bible is full of promises from God, we can stand firm knowing that God will hold up his end of the bargain, he will never fail us.

I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. Psalms 34:1