Believe the Best

Last week a friend of mine gave me a scripture that happened to be the same scripture that had come to me the night before when I was having a hard time not succumbing to the negative circumstances of my life.

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." -Phillipians 4:8

Again, (I know I say this a lot but) God speaks.  He knew I needed this scripture and He knew I needed to work on this right now.  I need to not dwell on what is pulling me down--people talking behind my back, my own disapproval of my past actions, anger towards others' actions, what the future holds for me now--and dwell on what is real and right--I'm human and can change, God said so!  God is with me even when I feel like no one else is on my side.  God knows what is best for me and He will give that to me for my future.

You can walk down a road and look straight forward, or you can let your eyes wander off to the side.  Which way do you think your feet will take you?  Actually, stand up right now and try to walk in a straight line while looking off to your right.  Hard to do, huh?  Focus on where you need to go!

And then this morning, one of my devotionals expounded further on what the original passage said.  God is laying this on me thick.

"[Love] believes all things, hopes all things." -1 Corinthians 13:7

To truly love, you need to focus on what is positive.  You can't dwell on everything that someone does wrong because you won't see all the fantastic things that they do right.  If you concentrate on their annoying habits, you won't find those neat things that they do that make you smile.

Look at a screen door.   Look right at the actual screen.  Seeing that which is right in front of you made everything behind it blurry, didn't it?  You didn't see the kids playing and giggling in the backyard or the flowers blooming.  All you saw was that gray screen because that is what you focused on.

All day long I find myself consumed with thoughts of resentment towards a lot of people.  It has been my immediate prayer lately that God takes that away from me and fills me with love.

God, heal my hardened, broken heart and let me see the good.  Let me love again.  Let me feel love again.  Help me to not have negative thoughts towards others.  Remind me to pray for them instead of curse them.  Lift all the negativity out of my heart and fill me with love.