Christian Devotionals and Scripture Applied to Everyday Life

I am a dreamer. In my head I make big plans about how things should go, and then I strive to make them happen. Often, though, I get discouraged when things don't work out the way I had hoped. Sometimes circumstances are such that the dream falls flat. Other times I just become exhausted in my efforts and feelings of failure overwhelm me for not being able to make things happen. 

"I am having a hard time reading my Bible and praying." These are the words I have heard so often from numerous different people. We have heard that a growing relationship with God and living in the power of His Spirit is developed through these disciplines, but so often it is hard to put them into practice. As I have grown over the past decades, I have come to define the process of developing my friendship with God as taking a walk.

Your mind is like a camera. When you see something it becomes imbedded in your brain and will never go away. That is why it is very important to guard carefully what you allow your eyes to see. When I was around eight or nine years old I remember walking with my family through a mall.  As we strolled through the thoroughfare my eye caught sight of a poster hanging in a shop.  It was a disgusting picture of something I had never seen before. My mind took a snapshot of the image even though I immediately turned my eyes away. It is now almost 40 years later and at times that image comes to my memory.

When Jesus wins a victory, He always turns the tables on the enemy and uses the circumstances to glorify God. Listen to this story taken from Luke 8:22-39 and see what God does!

I remember a few years ago watching a marathon on TV. There was a woman who had made it to the end of the race in utter exhaustion. You could see the sweat and pained look on her face, but the worst part was that her legs were starting to buckle. Despite these physical limitations she pushed her way to the end, passed the finish line, and collapsed to the sound of tremendous applause. She had not given up and had conquered the race.

It is possible to change the way your brain thinks by forcing it to take a different path. The Bible calls it renewing your mind.