Peace Taker #4- Our God-given Position? Part 1 (TMF:675)

Peace to Live By: Peace Taker #4- Our God-given Position? Part 1 (TMF:675) - Daniel Litton
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       Number four:Not accepting our God-given position in life. “All things are decided by fate; it was known long ago what each man would be. So there’s no use arguing with God about your destiny” (Ecclesiastes 6:10, TLB). God has given us our position in life, and we should accept it and not be comparing ourselves with others. Most of us are normal, average individuals that God has called to do a variety of tasks. We all have been gifted in different ways, with varying talents and abilities. When we accept our position in life, that gives us peace and freedom to go about doing what we should to be doing, our work, with joy. But when we don’t accept our position, we find that we don’t enjoy our work and we become discontent on a daily basis. We find ourselves wanting to be someone whom we are not. It’s not possible for us to be discontent and yet living happy, peaceful lives in Christ.

Peace Taker #3- Recalling Negative Events, Part 2 (TMF:674)

Peace to Live By: Peace Taker #3- Recalling Negative Events, Part 2 (TMF:674) - Daniel Litton
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       We should not be thinking about things that just cause us to relive through the hurt and give us negative emotions. Instead, we should focus on positive things from our past, and think about the good things that have happened. Just because we may have had experiences in our past that were negative does not mean that the future will then be negative. Not all of the past in our lives has been negative. I can guarantee you, if you’ll think about it, that there are many good things from the past you can recall to give you faith for the future. You shouldn't cultivate a negative view of the past when not everything has been negative. Think about the positive things that you have experienced, and be sure that God has more positive things for you in the future. For many of us, we have got to work to get rid of more negativism from our minds. Just because things may look grim, to you, for the future, or the mere fact that you don’t know what God has in store for you, this does not mean you have to think negatively.

Peace Taker #3- Recalling Negative Events, Part 1 (TMF:673)

Peace to Live By: Peace Taker #3- Recalling Negative Events, Part 1 (TMF:673) - Daniel Litton
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       A lot of us think too much about negative past events as well. It may not be something you did wrong, but something may have happened that was negative and upsetting. It may have even been something that someone else or others did that hurt us. Nevertheless, we cannot be cultivating more peace in our minds if we are reminiscing about these things from time to time. But someone might say, “Doesn’t everybody do that?” Perhaps to some degree, but we don’t have to. Indeed, we should not be thinking about things that just cause us to relive through the hurt and give us negative emotions. Instead, we should focus on positive things from our past, and think about the good things that have happened. Just because we may have had experiences in our past that were negative does not mean that the future will then be negative. Not all of the past in our lives has been negative. I can guarantee you, if you’ll think about it, that there are many good things from the past you can recall to give you faith for the future. You shouldn't cultivate a negative view of the past when not everything has been negative. Think about the positive things that you have experienced, and be sure that God has more positive things for you in the future.

Peace Taker #3- Recalling Past Sins (TMF:672)

Peace to Live By: Peace Taker #3- Recalling Past Sins (TMF:672) - Daniel Litton
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       Number three: Recalling past sins and negative events. “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13, 14, ESV). I’ve talked about in the past how some people have created cemeteries in their minds of bad things that have happened in the past. They recall their past sins and memorialize them in their minds, like tombstones in a cemetery. But this, of course, only works to torment ourselves, and definitely takes away peace in our minds. Thinking about a past sin committed doesn’t do any good. It doesn’t make the sin go away—quite the opposite—it keeps it alive. God tells us in Hebrews: “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 8:12, ESV). If God doesn’t even remember our sins, then why should we? If our minds are always stuck in the past, then we cannot enjoy our ‘now’ time and even enjoy the future. Thinking about past sins will cause negativity to develop in our minds, and that surely work to make us miserable.

Peace Taker #2- Past Better than Present? Part 2 (TMF:671)

Peace to Live By: Peace Taker #2- Past Better than Present? Part 2 (TMF:671) - Daniel Litton
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       We should enjoy the present time—our current ‘now’ time. There are always troubles in any given day, but we need to enjoy life the best we can. We should enjoy our jobs, our work, and enjoy eating our meals; this makes us happy. Every day that God has given us is a gift, and if we see each day—each time slot we have—as a gift, we can then enjoy it. A lot of people, for instance, like to wish away their work week. They are always looking forward to the weekend at the expense of the present. There’s nothing wrong with looking forward for the weekend to come, but we shouldn’t view each of our workdays as undesirable and not enjoy them. Try to enjoy the present. Squeeze all you can out of the present time, making the most of it. Sure it may not be as good and fun as the weekend, but it’s still a time that can be enjoyed.