I'm just beginning to see why being thankful is so important. Being thankful helps to create the mindset and environment that opens your eyes to what is not only possible but to the resources that are available to in order to manifest that possibility. Most of us have been taught to focus on what is wrong in life instead of the good things that are here, and whatever you focus on, good, bad or indifferent is what life will give you. A basic law of life is that the things that you focus on expand. Paul writes about the magnitude of this principle in Philippians, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Philippians 4: 8 [KJV] One of the greatest gifts or benefits of being made in God's image is our ability to choose. Freedom of choice (using the mind of Christ) is the fuel in living victoriously. We live in a choice driven world. To a very large degree, the life that you are now living is the results of the choices that you have made to date. If you want to change your life, start by changing your choices. This is, of course, easier said than done. The problem comes in with the truth that most of our present choices give us some sort of emotional pay-off. It's not so much the result that we don't want to let go of, but the comfort zone that our emotional pay-offs keep us locked in to. Too many of us would rather dwell in a comfort zone of the known, even if the end results lead to killing, stealing or destroying the very things that we claim to want to protect instead of facing the fear of the unknown. This is where the deception of Satan comes in. There is a SPIRIT of fear that we allow to drive our thinking. The energy that many of us name fear is really the energy that God has placed in you to help you to get over the hard spots, the obstacles in life. The Bible tells us that we don't have "a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind." But the spirit of fear trains us (by focusing on what's wrong) to misname the very energy that God has sent to help us. One of the benefits of choice, of being made in God's very own image, is found in Romans 4:17, the ability and authority to call those things "…which be not as though they were.". Understand your power and authority found as an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus. When we align our desires and words and actions with God, He makes the necessary energy accessible to us in order to reach our requests. It's His desire as our Daddy to give us those good things that line up with His word, this is only one of the ways that we know that our Abba, our Daddy loves us. Now that you know better, will you, are you going to let fear rule over the choices that you need to make?

The Courage to Change