14 January 2024
Two-Minute Features | 21 January 2024 | 07 January 2024

Our Self-Pity Doesn’t Help Us, Part 1 (TMF:2270)

Friday, January 19, 2024
Peace to Live By: Our Self-Pity Doesn’t Help Us, Part 1 (TMF:2270) - Daniel Litton
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       I’m going to tell you a secret. Actually, I hope it isn’t a secret for you. But the truth is that Jesus has made us perfectly righteous in the here and now. Because we are in right relationship with God the Father as a result of our belief in Jesus, that means we have access to all of God’s power at our fingertips. That includes power over guilt inside of our minds. Probably it is true that you came to know God out of guilt. I mean, there had to be that foundation of sin that had built up inside of you, and you came to the point where you knew you couldn’t do it yourself—you couldn’t make the guilt go away. The beautiful thing is, is that when we give up guilt, our minds have a tendency to begin thinking in the right way. The rivers inside our minds start flowing in the right directions, and we have room for positive thoughts. Having come to God, we have relinquished our guilt. In doing that, we have a new identity that isn’t saturated in guilt. So, we’re not a ‘small’ person anymore because God has raised us up. The Bible even says he has seated us with Jesus in Heavenly places. Pretty remarkable.

Any Obsession is Bad, Part 3 (TMF:2269)

Thursday, January 18, 2024
Peace to Live By: Any Obsession is Bad, Part 3 (TMF:2269) - Daniel Litton
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       The problem is that specialness has been attributed to the person liked beyond reason. Their importance has been magnified beyond what it should have been. If we lived okay before we met the person, we can live perfectly fine without them. The truth is, is that we don’t need any worldly person or possession in order to make us happy. The only person we actually need in life is God. God is all we truly need. Everything else is an option. A person could be sleeping under a bridge in downtown Columbus but if they have God, really, in reality, they are perfectly fine. A man could of just had his wife leave with the three children, but if he has God, really, he’s okay. A businessman could walk into the bank on Monday morning and see that $250,000 has been stolen from his account, but if he has God, it really doesn’t matter. All that does matter is God. Obsession isn’t balance. Obsession means something is wrong. It means the desire for something is too strong.

Any Obsession is Bad, Part 2 (TMF:2268)

Wednesday, January 17, 2024
Peace to Live By: Any Obsession is Bad, Part 2 (TMF:2268) - Daniel Litton
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       That is because when we magnify something and make it more important than anything else, even if we are only doing this in our minds, it means we become a slave to reaching the end result of that obsession. It means that we have to win or we aren’t going to feel good. We have to ‘get’ whatever it is to feel complete again. This is a bad place to be in because we are already complete. We should never need any person or any thing to become complete. We are already complete in our relationship with God. A common temptation that people fall into is, “I have to have this person as my partner in order to feel complete. If I cannot work things out with this person, then my life is over.” We’ve all heard this, seen this, perhaps experienced this in a variety of ways. A person can become fixated with a certain other person that they want to spend the rest of their lives with. Perhaps they’ve been dating the person a while, or perhaps they haven’t even gone on a date with them. But we need to realize the fallacy in this type of thinking. Certainly there isn’t only one lover that can make us happy.

Any Obsession is Bad, Part 1 (TMF:2267)

Tuesday, January 16, 2024
Peace to Live By: Any Obsession is Bad, Part 1 (TMF:2267) - Daniel Litton
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       We all have things we wish to achieve in life. It’s just the way we naturally work here in American society. We can be seeking to advance in our career, train our son to become the best athlete ever, find that ‘perfect’ person and get engaged, or obtain the best collection or this or that. There is nothing necessarily wrong with any of these things. The problem for us comes when we become ‘obsessed’ with the drive to obtain. Our feelings and emotions can take over, and when that happens, our life can become all about that one thing, whatever it is. The first issue with obsession is that it enslaves us. The Bible warns us against sin because sin enslaves. Well, obsession enslaves too. That is because when we magnify something and make it more important than anything else, even if we are only doing this in our minds, it means we become a slave to reaching the end result of that obsession. It means that we have to win or we aren’t going to feel good. We have to ‘get’ whatever it is to feel complete again.

The Top Isn’t Always the Best (TMF:2266)

Monday, January 15, 2024
Peace to Live By: The Top Isn’t Always the Best (TMF:2266) - Daniel Litton
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       It is a common belief that arriving at the top, being the best in the game at something, is really the best place one can arrive. Sounds good. We hear it a lot. But the truth of the matter is that being at the top isn’t always the best. There are several reasons as why this is the case. We certainly don’t want to be at the bottom. That’s no fun. But for most of us, we aren’t going to want to be at the top either. This will become apparent as we evaluate the following issues with being at the top. First and foremost, being at the top isn’t always the best simply because we have a misperception of what that means to begin with. We have images in our minds of what it will look like. For instance, the businessperson who desires to reach the top of their branch or the top of the company may feel that that is where the happiness belongs. It’s true, the top will bring more money. There’s no doubt about that. It’s also true that the person’s title will be more prestigious. But what the person doesn’t realize is that generally speaking, the more responsibility the more the work. We’ve heard this before, haven’t we? It is as Jesus has taught us, that to whom much is given, much is required.