DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT - WEDNESDAY: "Achieving Our Goals in Christ"#3

Dr. Ari Kiev of Cornell University observed that from the moment people decided to concentrate all their energies on a specific objective, they began to surmount the most difficult odds. He concluded, "The establishment of a goal is the key to successful living." - Today in the Word.

-------------------------------------------------------

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. - Mat 6:19-20. (ESV)

As we continue our series on how to Achieve Our Goals in Christ, we are reminded that these principles will provide us with a basic guideline, which will give us direction and inspiration, for achieving our goals in Christ. I do not know what your goals are, but I am using these principles to see my goals achieved in Christ, and the next one is...

Refuse To Walk in Fear and Worry!

• Fear and worry are the interest we pay in advance for something we may never own.
• Worry is the triumph of fear over faith!
• Worry is the misuse of God's creative imagination and powers in our lives.
• Worry literally means to choke off. When we worry we are strangling the very hope and faith of our future and the achieving of our goals in Christ.
  
  

One summer night during a severe thunderstorm a mother was tucking her small son into bed. She was about to turn the light off when he asked in a trembling voice, "Mommy, will you stay with me all night?" Smiling, the mother gave him a warm, reassuring hug and said tenderly, "I can't dear. I have to sleep in Daddy's room." A long silence followed. At last it was broken by a shaky voice saying, "The big sissy!" – Source unknown.

Basics For Beating Worry:
1) Remember worry literally destroys our physical well-being and health.
2) When we face problems:

• Ask ourselves, "What is the worst thing that could possibly happen?"
• Prepare to accept the worst.
• Try to improve on the worst.

3) Get all the facts before we allow ourselves to worry or fear.
4) Weigh all the facts and make the best decision possible based upon knowledgeable facts.
5) Once we have made a prayerful decision act upon it.
6) Write out and answer the following questions:

• What is the problem?
• What are the causes of the problem?
• What are the possible solutions?
• What is the best solution?

When we worry and fear we stop the creative powers of God to show us the solutions... Our LORD, we belong to you. We tell you what worries us, and you won't let us fall. - Psalm 55:22. (CEV) When we are worrying, we are diminishing the greatness of God in our lives! Don't worry or fear, take them to Christ for He cares for you.

I am inwardly fashioned for faith, not for fear. Fear is not my native land; faith is. I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil. I live better by faith and confidence than by fear, doubt and anxiety. In anxiety and worry, my being is gasping for breath--these are not my native air. But in faith and confidence, I breathe freely--these are my native air.

A John Hopkins University doctor says, "We do not know why it is that worriers die sooner than the non-worriers, but that is a fact." But I, who am simple of mind, think I know; We are inwardly constructed in nerve and tissue, brain cell and soul, for faith and not for fear. God made us that way. To live by worry is to live against reality. - Dr. E. Stanley Jones.

Today is the day when I will put a stop to fear and worry in my life, and let the Lord assure me in all things. Praise His mighty name!

Loving Father, help me by the power of the Holy Spirit to achieve my goals in Christ, remembering that you are a powerful God. Help me Lord as I determine to put away my fear and worries, and cast them upon you, knowing that you work all things to the good, to those that love you!. In Jesus wonderful name! Amen!