PROTECT YOUR FAITH

Today while getting ready to go take care of things, I was listening to some "good gospel music" on the radio. There were songs about "holding on","God is good", "great things are happening"...the normal uplifting songs I love to hear. These songs lift your spirit and bring peace to your mind in troubled times. Then I thought, "I need to listen to the news to see what's happening in the world." So, I did!

BROTHER! By the time I had listened just a FEW MINUTES, I started feeling "low"! I started thinking "negative" thoughts. My spirit wasn't "soaring" like it had been when I was listening to "good gospel music". There was not ONE thing they said on FOX or CNN that brought any happiness to my spirit, and it sure didn't BUILD my FAITH! House markets are down, the gas prices are terrible, food prices are high and getting higher, fires in California, drought in Western Oklahoma....on and on they talked and said THEIR predictions on how BAD things are, and how BAD things are going to get.

Then I had the thought...."PROTECT YOUR FAITH"!!! I think it came from God. We have several situations that we are praying for, and sometimes it seems God is taking His time! I needed to "think on the goodness of Jesus" and NOT the economy and all of the doom and gloom around us. MY GOD is BIGGER than the ECONOMY and HE can and WILL ANSWER our prayers. I needed to remember the words to this song.

When you're up against a struggle

That's shattered all your dreams

And your hopes been cruely crushed

By Satan's manifested schemes.

And you feel the urge within you

To submit to earthly fears

Don't let the faith your standing in

Seem to disappear

Praise the Lord.

He will work for those who praise him

Praise the Lord.

For our God inhabits praise.

Praise the Lord.

For the chains that seem to bind you

Serve only to remind you.

That they fall powerless behind you.

When you praise him.

Satan is a liar and he wants to make us think

That we are paupers, when we know ourselves

We're children of the king.

So lift up the mighty shield of faith

For the battle must be won

Remember Jesus Christ has risen

So the works already done.

We can become so entrenched with the thinking of "this world" and forget that our HOPE, our STRENGTH, our ANSWERS come from HIM! It doesn't matter what the news is saying! OUR GOD is the WAY-MAKER!

Here are a few things I think I'll do:

1. Don't listen to the nay-sayers!

2. Turn off the talk shows and news!

3. Look to Jesus!

4. Read His Word!

5. Listen to those who speak positive!

6. PRAY!

7. Think on the goodness of Jesus!

8. Speak words of FAITH!

9. Know in Whom I have believed!

".....with God all things are possible."