Renew your mind

This afternoon I give a talk to a couple of hundred kids who live in an orphanage. They all have had very difficult lives and most have experienced some dark things that no kid should ever have to experience. Please pray that I will find the right words today.

My goal is to inspire them and let them know that God loves them and if they will team up with Jesus Christ, they can do anything with the rest of their young lives. It is difficult to make someone who is experiencing pain, grief, and tribulation in their lives believe that things can and will get better. It is kind of like hitting your thumb with a hammer; someone can tell you that it will quit hurting in a little while, but right after the hammer hits it, it HURTS!

I am almost always in a good mood. I wake up in a good mood and mostly stay that way in spite of the many things that sometimes go wrong in my busy life. I remember those days when I was never in a good mood. I never smiled and was miserable. I remember the loneliness, despair and being entirely devoid of hope. Many of these kids are just like I was and have become convinced that there is no way out.

In fact I suspect some of you who are reading this are convinced that there is no hope that the dark situation in your life can and will get better, but you are mistaken. In the Bible Paul tells us to look ahead and not back. Water under the bridge is gone and is yesterday’s news. Today is whatever you choose to make of it and even though we are not promised a tomorrow, if it comes, it holds the same promise.

One time my brother called me and was lamenting the fact that I was so happy and he was so miserable. He sobbed into the phone, “We came out of the same womb, we look similar, have similar intellects, and yet here you are happy as can be and I am as miserable as can be. Everything is going great for you, your family, career, finance, and everything in my life is the diametric opposite, and a total wreck on all fronts. What’s the difference?”

I told him, “Jim, the difference’ is that I have God in my life and you do not”. I was just like Jim before I found God. I found that God is the difference between a life of sadness and despair or tremendous happiness and opportunity.

Do you have God in your life? If not, give it a try. You will not be sorry. Those who reject and ignore God are the ones who end up being sorry The Bible tells us that apart from God there cannot be any happiness or success. (I define success as being happy.) Happiness does not come from the world, it comes from God.

Be willing to serve Him and notice how your tortured mind will be renewed. Try your utmost to find HIS will for your life and submit to it and that smile will be there most every morning, coffee or no coffee

Romans 12:1
I beseech you therefore
brethren, by the mercies of
God that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
to God, which is your reasonable
service.
And do not be conformed to this
world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may
prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God.