Affirmations Bringing Encouragement, Part 1 (TMF:2410)

Friday, August 02, 2024

Peace to Live By: Affirmations Bringing Encouragement, Part 1 (TMF:2410) - Daniel Litton
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We all wake up on certain days where it feels like we are flooded with negative emotions. Arising from bed, we go to make a cup of coffee and sit down in our recliner. It’s like something opened up the floodgates of negativity. Negative thoughts seem to be flooding our minds, so that all the areas of our brain seem to be eventually effected. We look at certain situations with a negative perspective. Only the negative-side seems to be present, and no matter how much we try to see things differently, nothing seems to change. There are different approaches one could take to this type of situation. One of those, though, is what the Apostle Paul talked about, and that is namely encouragement. We are instructed in Scripture to bring encouragement to one another, but did you know that you can actually encourage yourself? Certainly. We don’t always need others to encourage us. As a matter of fact, we can let God encourage us through the Scriptures. One good way I have found to accomplish this task is not be simply reading the Scriptures, but rather by have a list of positive affirmations from the Scriptures on hand.

When Praying, Quality over Quantity Part 3 (TMF:2409)

Thursday, August 01, 2024

Peace to Live By: When Praying, Quality over Quantity Part 3 (TMF:2409) - Daniel Litton
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If we look at his prayer there, one in which he thanks God for answering his prayer, for what he is about to do before them all, we see that it is very basic. It is simply a ‘thanks’ and doesn’t take a paragraph to say that. Jesus cuts straight to the point, and that is good enough. That’s all there was to it. No need for great eloquence in words like we might think. No need for the prayer to have lasted at least one minute for it count, or some rule like that we have made up in our minds. No. It was simple and to the point. Finally, the prayer that we all know, the most famous prayer of the New Testament, the Lord’s Prayer, demonstrates this quality over quantity concept I am talking about. That prayer is very basic, and yet, it conveys a good deal of things, all the necessities in fact. Yet, it accomplishes that without being prolonged and taking forever. What a great model for us, and a good model and reminder for us that prayers don’t have to take forever to be approved and acceptable before our Father in Heaven.

When Praying, Quality over Quantity Part 2 (TMF:2408)

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Peace to Live By: When Praying, Quality over Quantity Part 2 (TMF:2408) - Daniel Litton
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Often what is focused on is the attitudes of the prayers, and certainly, there is a lot that can be said about that. But we can also focus on the fact that the Pharisee’s, or religious leader’s, prayer was a lot longer than that of the tax collector, or sinner we might say. The sinner’s prayer was a lot more basic and humble. It cut straight to the point of what the man wanted to say. It cut straight to the point of what the man wanted to say, and didn’t fluff anything up or make it unnecessarily wordy or long. The religious leader I’m sure was proud of his prayer in the way it sounded. That seems obvious. Or, we could jump to the scene in John 11 where Jesus is praying before the crowd right before he raises Lazarus from the dead. If we look at his prayer there, one in which he thanks God for answering his prayer, for what he is about to do before them all, we see that it is very basic. It is simply a ‘thanks’ and doesn’t take a paragraph to say that. Jesus cuts straight to the point, and that is good enough. That’s all there was to it. No need for great eloquence in words like we might think.

When Praying, Quality over Quantity Part 1 (TMF:2407)

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Peace to Live By: When Praying, Quality over Quantity Part 1 (TMF:2407) - Daniel Litton
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We love our prayer time with God. Sometimes in spending that time, I think we wonder how long we should actually be spending. There seems to be that temptation that we need to stretch things out a little bit with God for fear that we aren’t spending enough time with him. But what I have found to be true is that I believe the quality of our prayers is more important than the quantity. What I mean is that I would rather spend five minutes of mindful prayer, than fifteen minutes of prayer that is wordy and just seems to be stretched out. I don’t think God is as concerned with the quantity as much as he is the quality. We see this concept in reading the story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18. Often what is focused on is the attitudes of the prayers, and certainly, there is a lot that can be said about that. But we can also focus on the fact that the Pharisee’s, or religious leader’s, prayer was a lot longer than that of the tax collector, or sinner we might say. The sinner’s prayer was a lot more basic and humble. It cut straight to the point of what the man wanted to say.

Keeping Love in Proper Order (TMF:2406)

Monday, July 29, 2024

Peace to Live By: Keeping Love in Proper Order (TMF:2406) - Daniel Litton
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Romantic love is good; God created it. A careful reading of the Song of Solomon in our Bibles will show us that much. It is fun and luring, again, the way God made it. But it, just like anything else in our lives, should never take precedence over our relationships with God. Love between two people on the earth should never come to place where it is seen as more important than the practice of one’s relationship with God. Though, I’m sure, like with anything, that can be a great temptation, to hold one’s partner as of higher importance than God himself. And this very point ties into the reason that one should not marry one who is outside of relationship with God. To do that that obviously means a person is valuing another person more than God. So, what is your love built upon if you are dating or courting someone currently? Is it built upon things like passion, desire, or infatuation? Or is it built upon a steady and controlled endurance?