Daily Inspiration 4-15-16

"Don't use your words 

to describe the situation, 

use your words 

to change the situation." 

-- Joel Osteen 

Yesterday, I was listening to one of Joel Osteen's latest books, The Power of I Am, and two phrases fairly close together demanded my attention and I had to write them down. One is the quote above. He's saying not to speak about what is going on and how that is not to your liking, but instead, speak only to what you want, what is working, what is empowering within yourself.

The second quote I had to write down was when he added, "Don't take your problems to God. Take your praise to God." That is part of the same thing. How often we might talk about the problems in our life, the so-called reality of what is in front of us, praying to be loosed from them, all the while continuing to speak of them. He says, instead, "take your praise to God."

I've told this story two or three times, but again reminded of how and when I started changing from complaining to God to praising God for virtually every thing. It was an old book my wife gave me that she thought I should read. What's really funny about that is that she had never read it, but somehow thought I should, and when I took what it said to heart, she resisted that change in me. The book was published in 1972 by Merlin Carothers, titled, Power In Praise-- How the Spiritual Dynamic of Praise Revolutionizes Lives. In that book, I learned to praise God for everything regardless of my opinion of it. It immediately changed my life.

Then somewhat later, I was introduced to Abraham, Esther Hicks, who gave me a whole new lease on life and even expanded on what I learned before that. Along the lines of the two quotes from Joel Osteen, consider these words from Abraham, Esther Hicks on the same subject: "You have the ability to direct your own thoughts; you have the option of observing things as they are, or of imagining them as you want them to be--and whichever option you choose, whether you are imagining or observing, is equally powerful. In every case, your thoughts produce a vibration within you that equals your point of attraction--and then, circumstances and events line up to match the vibrations that you have offered." 

In other words, we can look upon our problems, or we can imagine the way we want it to be, and the choice of that focus will ultimately determine our results. We can talk about our problems to God, to our friends, to our coworkers, to strangers, and all we have is more of our problems. Instead of unburdening ourselves, we are adding to it by continuing to address them.

Yet, when we let loose of our problems, find the things in our lives to praise--even to praise God for--more of those things will become real in our lives. And, learning from Merlin Carothers, even the act of changing to praising God for the problems, no matter what they are, revolutionizes our life. It certainly did my own.

In Abraham-speak, what we choose to focus on creates our point of attraction, attracting more of that. And they add that we will know our point of attraction by how we feel, so that when we are feeling good, that is what we are attracting, and when we are feeling negative feelings, we attract more of that. Of course, that matches Joel and Merlin in that talking about our problems is never uplifting to ourselves, and praising God cannot help but be uplifting.


Counting The Blessings By Focusing On Them And Giving Thanks For Them, And All Things. 

Spread Some Joy Today--Joy is the result of praise. Praise is the ultimate result of joy. To praise is to be joyful. To be joyful is to praise.