GET YOUR MIND RIGHT – How to Accept Yourself!

“Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt

 

“It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else’s eyes.”  ~Sally Field

Are you 100% happy and content with yourself? Do you accept the physical features that God has created you with?

I think if we all answer that question honestly… we would all tend to agree that there are all a few (or many) things we would change about ourselves in many different areas.

And yes — there are many areas in our life, that we can change. If those are areas that we can change for the better… then by all means, go ahead and change them.

But there are many things about ourselves that we CANNOT change.

For instance — you can’t change how short you are or how tall you are… you can’t change the color of your skin… many times, you can’t change how athletic you are… and unless you invest in expensive (and sometimes dangerous surgery) you can’t change facial features such as your nose, ears, teeth, baldness, etc.

So by now, you should already know as a FACT that you are created in God’s image (read Monday’s post)… and that you should have a healthy & positive outlook on your self as a person.

But how do we deal with the insecurities that we ALL have… and accept ourselves as how God created us?

How to Accept Yourself

To solve this problem… I believe the BIGGEST thing we should make up in our mind is to focus on the POSITIVE traits that we do have.

Each one of us have some very special talents and traits within himself or herself. You may not be the best athlete… but perhaps you are a FANTASTIC singer. You may not be very tall… but perhaps you are a SUCCESSFUL business man. You may have a huge nose… but perhaps you are the BEST mother out there!

The possibilities are endless! Focus on your good points... and what you can’t change, leave it be.

Look at the shepherd boy David. The Bible tells us that when Samuel came to annoint the first king over Israel — everybody looked past David because of his physical appearance. He was short, scrawny and ruddy… he just didn’t fit people’s expectations of what a king should like.

But that didn’t matter — because he fit God’s expectations. And guess what… so do you.

David went on to be Israel’s greatest king… and you can go on in life and become GREAT in whatever you aspire to do in this life!

christianinspiration.org

Cerdik seperti ular, tulus seperti merpati

Mat 10:16 "Lihat, Aku mengutus kamu seperti domba ke tengah-tengah serigala, sebab itu hendaklah kamu cerdik seperti ular dan tulus seperti merpati.

Kecerdikan si ular disebut dalam Alkitab sebanyak dua kali, dan masing-masing dinyatakan oleh dua orang nabi besar :

1. Musa
2. YESUS

YESUS adalah nabi yang sama seperti Musa yang dibangkitkan Tuhan

Deu 18:18 seorang nabi akan Kubangkitkan bagi mereka dari antara saudara mereka, seperti engkau [Musa] ini; Aku akan menaruh firman-Ku dalam mulutnya, dan ia akan mengatakan kepada mereka segala yang Kuperintahkan kepadanya.

Gen 3:1 Adapun ular ialah yang paling cerdik dari segala binatang di darat yang dijadikan oleh TUHAN Allah

Kecerdikan si ular
Mengapakah ular direfer sebagai suatu yang cerdik?

Kecerdikan bukan menyangkut tinggi rendahnya suatu intelegensia, namun lebih kepada kemampuan memanfaatkan intelegensi yang dimilikinya secara optimal.

Orang yang memiliki tingat IQ tinggi, belum tentu cerdas (smart), namun orang yang memiliki tingkat IQ yang lebih rendah, mungkin bisa cerdas/cerdik (smart) dibanding orang yang memiliki tingkat IQ lebih tinggi.

Dalam dunia usaha Indonesia pada umumnya, petinggi-petinggi perusahaan dipegang oleh lulusan-lulusan pendidikan jurusan ekonomi (non eksakta) yang secara umum tingkat IQ mereka lebih rendh dibanding lulusan eksakta.

Hal ini dipengaruhi oleh sistem pendidikan di Indonesia, dimana sejak banku sekolah SMA, siswa-siswa dengan tingkat IQ tinggi diarahkan dan mengarahkan diri ke jurusan eksakta, dmikian pula saat mereka memasuki dunia perguruan tinggi.

Kondisi ini berbalik 180 derajat saat memasuki dunia usaha, dimana pada level managerial sangat dibutuhkan orang-orang yang memiliki kualifikasi management yang baik - dan kenyataannya kemampuan ini banyak dimiliki oleh ara lulusan non eksakta (ekonomi).

Sementara itu, para lulusan eksakta lebih menyukai bidang-biadang keahlian khusus yang notabene level nya berada di bawah management.

Disinilah apa yang saya sebut sebagai 'smart', suatu kemampuan untuk mengolah tingkat intelegensia nya dan memanfaatkan nya untuk mengelola orang-orang yang memiliki tingkat IQ lebih tinggidari mereka sendiri. Mereka sanggup 'memanfaatkan' keahlian orang lain untuk dirinya sendiri (dalam arti luas kepentingan usaha yang dia pegang).

Orang Jawa bilang:
"Pinter ora cukup, kudu pinter-pinter "

Demikian pula, si ular yang hanya seekor binatang yang tingkat inteleensi nya lebih rendah dari manusia, ia sangat cerdas untuk mengelabuhi manusia (Adam da Hawa) watu itu.

Lalu dimanakah letak kecerdasan (kecerdikan) si ular tadi?

Kecerdikan ular :

1. Dia mampu berganti kulit secara periodik, hal ini memungkinkan ia untuk melepaskan diri dari parasit-parasit yang menempel pada kulitnya.
Karena kemampuan renewal inilah, ia dijadikan lambang kesehatan.
2. Kemampuan untuk mendeteksi mangsa dengan penglihatan infra merah
3. Kemampuan untuk mendeteksi keberadaanmangsa dengan indra penciuman.
4. Kemampuan untuk mengelabui mangsanya


Tulus seperti merpati

Mengapa merpati direfer sebagai suatu ketulusan?

Ketulusan menandakan hatinya murni, tidak ada kepahitan sedikitpun dalam hidupnya.
Akar kepahitan pun tidak ada, sebab ia tidak membiarkan benih-benih kepahitan masuk dalam dirinya.

Deu 29:18 Sebab itu janganlah di antaramu ada laki-laki atau perempuan, kaum keluarga atau suku yang hatinya pada hari ini berpaling meninggalkan TUHAN, Allah kita, untuk pergi berbakti kepada allah bangsa-bangsa itu; janganlah di antaramu ada akar yang menghasilkan racun atau ipuh.

Deu 29:18 lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from Jehovah our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;

Act 8:23 sebab kulihat, bahwa hatimu telah seperti empedu yang pahit dan terjerat dalam kejahatan."

Act 8:23 For I see that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.

Demikian juga, meskipun merpati adalah salah satu keluarga burung (avian family), ia tidak seperti burung-burung lainya, ia tidak memiliki sumber kepahitan ddalam dirinya.

Merpati tidak memiliki : empedu

forumkristen.com

Give Yourself a Gift - Forgiveness

 Become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you.                

— Ephesians 4:32
 
Unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, or offense of any kind can render us unable to hear from God. The Word of God is very clear on this subject. If we want God to forgive our sins and offenses against Him, we must forgive others their sins and offenses against us.

Ephesians 4:30–32, the passage that contains our verse for today, teaches that we grieve the Holy Spirit when we harbor negative emotions such as anger, resentment, and animosity in our hearts. When we hold unforgiveness against anyone for any reason, it hardens our hearts and prevents us from being sensitive to God’s leading in our lives.

I once heard someone say that holding unforgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping your enemy will die. Why spend your life being angry and bitter toward someone who is probably enjoying his or her life and does not even care that you are upset? Do yourself a favor—forgive those who hurt you! Give yourself the gift of forgiveness. It will bring peace to your heart and enable you to hear God’s voice and follow His leading in your life.

God’s word for you today: Give yourself the gift of forgiving others.

www.joycemeyer.org

Worry

"Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding." Prv 3:5
 
Did you know that God wants to make a trade with you? He has a standing offer every minute of every day, and it's amazing how few of us actually take Him up on it. He wants you to give Him all your cares, problems and failures. In return, He'll give you His peace and joy. On top of that, He promises to protect and take care of you.

Let Go of Your Worry...
God really does want to take care of us, but in order to let Him, we've got to stop trying to take care of ourselves and worrying about every little thing we can't control. Many people would like for God to take care of them, but they insist on worrying or trying to figure out an answer on their own instead of waiting for His direction. They wallow around in puddles of their own worry, wondering why God doesn’t give them peace. God will give us peace, but we must first give Him our worries.

We give God our worries by trusting that He can and will take care of us. By trusting God, we're able to rest in Him, knowing that He has the situation well under control. Worry, on the other hand, is the opposite of trust. Worry steals our peace, wears us out physically, and can even make us sick. If we're worrying, we're not fully trusting God, and we'll never be able to experience His peace.

...and Pick Up God’s Peace! What a great trade! We give God our worry, and He gives us His peace. We give Him all our cares and concerns, and He gives us His protection, stability and joy. That's the privilege of being cared for by Him.

Because He cares for us, He wants us to live in peace and not be all tied up in knots of worry. He has ways of guiding us toward peace if we're alert enough to sense His direction.

Read the Signs
Imagine that you're driving down a road. Along the way, there are signs that provide direction or give warning. If you pay attention to the signs and follow their instructions, you will safely reach your destination.

In the same way, on the road of life there are spiritual signs along the way. In order to stay under God's protection, you must obey these signs that tell you to trust Him and not worry. Don't be afraid; have courage. If you'll pay attention to these signs, you'll find it's easy to stay on course. You'll experience the protection, peace and joy that only God can provide.

However, if you fail to heed the signs, you may notice that the road seems a little bumpier than usual, and you aren't as confident in your ability as you once were. You may become anxious about the unknown things waiting around the corner, and even veer off the road.

Focus on Today
Anxiety is like putting on a heavy coat on a hot summer day. It weighs you down. It’s difficult to move and stifling to wear. According to Webster's Dictionary, anxiety is "a state of being uneasy, apprehensive or worried..." Sometimes this uneasiness is really vague—something we just can't put our finger on. All we know is that we're uneasy.

You and I don't need to be anxious about tomorrow when we have all we can handle today. Even if we manage to solve all our problems today, we'll just have more to deal with tomorrow...and more the next day.

Why waste time worrying when it's not going to solve anything? Why be anxious about yesterday, which is gone, or tomorrow, which hasn't arrived yet? Trade in your worries today for God's peace.

www.joycemeyer.org 

Love Is Not Easily Angered

You may not recognize your struggle with envy or boasting or rudeness, but I’m willing to bet that everybody here can recognize their struggle with quick and sinful anger.

The King James translates this, “Love is not easily provoked”. Heather’s favorite translation, the English Standard Version, translates it, “...it is not irritable.” I like that. That speaks to me. “It is not irritable.”

Proverbs 22:24&25 says, “Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared.”
Angry people are focused not on others but on their own emotions and issues When anger rules, small problems become big explosions.

It’s not just automatic. Automatic is anger. Slow to anger is something supernatural. It’s something we’ve got to learn. Something that’s got to be worked inside of us. And it’s more than just “Count to 10”. These are not everything that could be said, but I think they’re some of the main things that will actually make a difference.

#1. REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE NOT GOD.

One person has said that there are two fundamental realities in the world: there is a God and you’re not Him. But when we get sinfully angry, we forgot that. We think that we are God, or at least, that we should be.

You and I tend to think of anger as primarily an emotion. It does have an emotional component. But it is also a thought that we have. It’s a mind-set. It’s a judgment we make. We need to remember that we are not God. We don’t call the shots. We don’t see things the way they really are. We are not the judge. We are not the prosecutor. We are not the executioner.

That’s why James says this in chapter 1 of his letter:
“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, [why?] for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”

How our relationships would be different if we could keep that in mind! It would be obvious to us to be quick to listen. We’d be humbled. And slow to speak–we’d be cautious. And slow to be become angry.

#2. CONSIDER HOW GOD HAS BEEN SLOW TO ANGER WITH YOU.

I looked up in my Bible program how many times the words “slow” and anger or angry come up. How many times do you think? Just 10 times.

One times is this James 1:19&20. And that’s talking about us, calling us to be slow to anger. Guess whom all the rest of them are about? The Lord. Most of them come from His self-revelation to Moses when He showed Him the tail-end of His glory.

Remember that? Exodus 34? The Lord talking about Himself? “He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness...”

And the other 8 occurrences talk about how that’s exactly how God has treated His children!

God is slow to anger. And friends, God has much more to be angry about than you and I do. He’s slow to anger.

Aren’t you glad for that? God is not irritable. God is not resentful. God doesn’t have a hair-trigger. Consider how God has been slow to anger with you. Does that change things in your relationships?

Young people, does that change how you might respond to your teacher, your coach, your parent, your brother or sister? God, the King of the Universe has been slow to anger with you! Can you let up a little?

Do you want to be godly? You have to be slow to anger. Let’s take it a step further. Not only was He slow to anger. But He sent His Son to absorb His anger against us.

#3. REMEMBER HOW JESUS ABSORBED GOD’S ANGER AT YOU.

God was not easily angered, but He was righteously angered at our sin. He cannot be neutral about our God-dishonoring behavior, falling short of His glory, rebelling against His standards, thinking, wanting, and doing what displeases God. He hates sin. And He will bring righteous judgment against it.

But He so loved you and me that He sent His One and Only Son, Jesus, to absorb His just wrath–His burning anger. That’s what was happening on that Cross! The Anger of God met the Love of God and Jesus took our punishment. He took our punishment for all of our sin–including the sin of rash anger.

My irritability on Jesus. The wages of irritability is death. And Jesus died for me. And for you, if you’ll trust Him. But He didn’t stay dead, did He?! Jesus was raised to life to give us life. To give us love. And to help us to love others. We don’t have to be irritable any longer. We’ll still be tempted to be irritable–and sometimes it will be so hard that we will give in. But we don’t have to be. Jesus has died for us, in our place. The Cross changes everything.

 “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” - Psalm 103:11&12
Remember, how Jesus absorbed the anger of God against you. That assumes that you have trusted in His perfect sacrifice. If you have not yet, I invite you to do so today. Believe the Gospel. Repent of your sins and trust in Jesus. And if you do, then the power of gospel can increasingly empower you to say no to sinful anger.

#4. TURN, IN THE MOMENT, AWAY FROM SELF AND ANGER TO OTHERS AND LOVE.

This presupposes that God has done a work in your heart. You can’t just choose to do this and have any lasting change.  But if you belong to Christ, you can do this. You can repent. And it’s repenting, in the moment, turning in the moment away from self and to others. Away from anger and to love. Turn. Turn, in the moment, away from the temptation to be provoked and turn towards others and love.

#5. DISCIPLINE YOURSELF TO WAIT BEFORE YOU GET ANGRY.

This, also, takes the Holy Spirit to really work. Self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It’s not just something that we can work up. But if the Holy Spirit has free reign in our lives, then we can discipline ourselves to wait before we get angry.

How many times have we gotten angry so fast, only to find out that we were wrong about what was happening? Wait before getting angry.

Proverbs 25:11 says, “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.”

That’s hot or cold anger. Hold off and see what’s really up before you react.

#6. LEARN TO OVERLOOK AS MANY OFFENSES AS POSSIBLE.

Yes, people are going to sin against you. But you can rise about a lot of those offenses. They don’t all have to be confronted.

Proverbs 19:11 (Hasn’t it been interesting to see how many Proverbs help us in our quest of learning to love? Proverbs is a book about a lot of things, but one of those things is how to love others skillfully!). Proverbs 19:11 – “A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.:

Notice the connection again between patience and kindness. This is love. Wisdom leads to patience which leads to overlooking offenses which is to our glory!

Just let it go. Those sins are paid for at the Cross, or they will catch up to them. But you don’t have to be the one to do the catching.

#7. HAVE YOUR HEART “STOCKED UP” WITH JESUS AND HIS GOOD NEWS.

When am I slow to anger? When I am close to Christ. Around here, we call it, “a love relationship with Jesus Christ.”

When we are walking in fellowship with Him, we remember that we are not God. And we remember that God has been slow to anger with us. And we remember that Jesus has absorbed God’s anger at us.

And that empowers us to turn, in the moment and love us. And discipline ourselves to wait before getting angry. And learn to overlook offenses as they come.

Let’s not just look into the mirror of the Word and agree that we can be angry people.  Let’s gaze into the mirror and let the Lord change us. So that we can be a blessing to others.

matt-mitchell.blogspot.com