One might say that our words are a movie screen that reveals what we have been thinking and the attitudes we have.
If your inner life is not producing what you would like on the outside, don't be discouraged... just be willing to change.
Once I realized that right thinking is vital to victorious living, I got more serious about thinking about what I was thinking about, and choosing my thoughts carefully.
Motives reveal why we do what we do, which is actually more important to God than what we're doing.
Most of us have hoped and prayed for something to happen a certain way, but it didn't. And when this happened, we had a choice to make: to react with offense toward God or to trust Him anyway.
Learning to live for others isn't something that just comes naturally to anybody. You have to train yourself to do it.
My father was a negative person. He actually taught me to be negative, if that makes any sense. I remember him saying: 'You know there's no point in expecting anything good to happen because it won't.' I grew up in such a negative atmosphere.
The Bible says that Christians are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. On the job, in the grocery store, even among unsaved friends and family members, God's people are there to bring seasoning to an unsavory situation.
Jesus is a divine guest inside of you all the time - one who loves, understands, sees and hears you. He wants to live in oneness with you... to be the centerpiece of everything you do.
A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere.
Whether we're happy with our circumstances or not, giving God praise is so important.
Don't just let the devil use your mind as a garbage dump.
At school I pretended I had a normal life, but I felt lonely all the time and different from everyone else. I never felt like I fit in, and I wasn't allowed to participate in after-school activities, go to sports events or parties or date boys. Many times I had to make up stories about why I couldn't do anything with my classmates.
A BMW can't take you as far as a diploma.
As you pray for the Holy Spirit to make you aware of thoughts that come into your mind that don't line up with God's Word, you'll begin to realize when those thoughts come and you can renew your mind with the Word.
It's so easy to settle for less than God's best for us because we don't always feel like taking responsibility for our behavior or putting forth some effort to do what we need to do so we can accomplish great things for God and help people. But the cost of settling for less is actually harder than being completely obedient to God's will.
Each time we cooperate with God, we take one more giant step forward. Because when God asks us to change, it means that He always has something better to give us - more freedom, greater joy, and greater blessings.
Getting organized in the normal routines of life and finishing little projects you've started is an important first step toward realizing larger goals. If you can't get a handle on the small things, how will you ever get it together to focus on the big things?
Character is expressed through our behavior patterns, or natural responses to things.
Because my dad abused me, I was determined to never let a man tell me what to do. God clearly showed me that I needed to be a submissive wife if I wanted to be effective in ministry. The truth is, if we don't learn to submit to authority, we won't ever learn to submit to God.
When you're in a leadership role, you can never please all of the people all of the time. There's also a lot of responsibility that goes along with it that others may not realize.
Getting stress out of your life takes more than prayer alone. You must take action to make changes and stop doing whatever is causing the stress. You can learn to calm down in the way you handle things.
Traditions are a common part of our lives. They can be good, and not all traditions are wrong, but sometimes they can take the joy out of life.
If we're really honest with ourselves, most of us will admit that we want to impress people, and this is what's causing us to do what we do.
Know that as a Christian, your destiny is to be Christlike in all of your ways.
I have learned from personal experience that putting trust in God means there will be some unanswered questions. That was a hard lesson for me because I naturally want to understand everything... to know what's going on so I can feel like I'm in control.
When you become a Christian, something truly amazing happens: God comes to live inside your heart. You become the home of God.
I'm only going to stand before God and give an account for my life, not for somebody else's life. If I have a bad attitude, then I need to say there's no point in me blaming you for what's wrong in my life.
I believe many people feel like God is mad at them. One day I put a post on Facebook that said, 'God is not mad at you.' Within a few hours, we literally had thousands of positive responses from people saying things like, 'That is exactly what I needed to hear today.' Obviously, this is a message we need to hear.
Jesus didn't die for us so we could pretend to be something we're not.
I may not be where I want to be, but thank God I am not where I used to be.
I want to look my best for God. So many people have the attitude that if you're a Christian you've got to dress bad, wear an old color, not do anything to your hair, have nothing. It's no wonder that Christianity is not very attractive. I mean, how many people do you know in a Western culture that's going to go, 'Yeah, give me some of that?'
There are many things that happen every day that we could murmur about if we let ourselves go there. But they really aren't worth the effort it takes to get upset and gripe about it.
I wonder how many decisions we make every day. I believe it's probably hundreds. We decide whether or not to get out of bed, what we'll eat, what we'll do, what we'll think about, what we'll say... and on and on.
I like gifts. I like to give them and I like to get them.
I consider wisdom supernatural because it isn't taught by men - it's a gift from God.