Thought for the day

"When we speak disarming words, not only do we seriously affect the lives of ourselves and others, we speak against God:

• Disarming words are words that God wouldn't speak.
• Words that break down instead of build up.
• Words that destroy instead of create.
• Words that tear apart instead of put together.

The words you speak have much to do with why you are where you are today, but just as important, the words you speak have much to do with why things are the way they are in other people's lives as well.

The questions we must ask ourselves are - Am I building up or knocking down? Is what I think about ordained by God?

There was a man in India who bought a small farm & farm house with a small brook running through the back yard. This farm was at the base of a group of mountains. When he moved in a priest stopped by to get acquainted. The man told the priest that he wanted to get rich and was going to set out to search for diamonds. The priest said he heard the diamonds were somewhere close by, maybe in the mountains that you could see out the back door.

The priest asked if the man was going to use the land and the man quickly told "I don't have time to mess with this place." He was going to spend his time looking for diamonds.

The man went everywhere in search of the diamonds. He spent his life in search of diamonds and finally spent his life's savings and started to sell off his farm land. Finally, after losing everything he sold the farm and house with the little brook running through the back yard to a man who really loved it. Soon after that he died.

The new owner moved in and began to enjoy what he had. He started potting plants and enjoyed the sound of the brook in the back yard. He would take small pebbles out of the brook and line the top of the potted plants to make them pretty.

The now aged priest came by to visit. The new owner brought him to the back yard to show him what he was doing. He loved his little farm and was proud of his potted plants. The priest was looking at the plants when he saw the bright pebbles glistening in the sun. He picked one up and shouted, "My God man these are diamonds, where did you get them?" The new owner said they were laying in the bottom of the pond and he would just reach down and pick them up to fill the top of his potted plants.

The nearby mountains had been depositing diamonds in this little brook for centuries.

The new owner now owned the richest diamond deposits ever found in India.  It is a tragedy to seek after what you already have. The first man had spent his whole life and all his money searching for what was already in his back yard. There are a lot of Christians looking for what they already have.

One more thing, God designed everything so that you and I would be enlightened. If you are thinking, "how can I be enlightened; you don't know what I have to deal with everyday, or you don't know what I have gone through"  If that's what's "on top" in your thinking process, enlightenment might look like something that you will have to encounter in the next life.

But when you change what's "on top" to think like God, instead of asking the question, "how can I be enlightened, you don't know what I have to deal with everyday"  It will be, "How can I not be enlightened by what I am going through everyday."

Excerpt from The Power of God Thinking by Keith C. Powell Copyright 2010