when the outlook is bad, look up…

in being patient waiting on GOD you wait expectantly, you wait quietly and then you wait confidently.

when the outlook is bad, you look up.  micah 7.7 (gn), i will wait confidently for GOD.

how do you do that?  you have hope.  hope is holding on praying expectantly – hope.  when you’ve got a problem that’s unexplainable, a person who is unchangeable, a circumstance that is uncontrollable then wait confidently.  GOD is working.

how do you wait confidently?  sit still.  don’t get nervous, anxious.  you don’t take matters into your own hands and work things out. 

psalm 37.7 (nlt), be still before the LORD and wait patiently for HIM to act. 

where do you need to have patience right now?  do you have an uncontrollable circumstance in your life right now?  maybe you're in a job situation and your boss has told you to do something that’s beyond your control and you don’t want to do it.  maybe you’ve had a financial reversal that was beyond your control.  maybe you have a long term illness. 

maybe you’ve got an unchangeable person in your life.  it’s frustrating when you tell your kids something to do over and over and they don’t do it. it’s frustrating when you want to make the marriage work and you’re willing to change but your partner is not willing to change.  it’s frustrating when you have a parent who’s growing old; their idiosyncrasies are coming out and they’re dependent upon you.  there’s that cantankerous relative that, every time they are around, they cause problems.  they’re never going to change.  you need patience with an unchangeable person.  you need patience with unexplainable problems. 

what do you do when you have these kinds of things?  remember what GOD has said in james.  GOD is in control.  it may be out of my control, but it’s not out of GOD’s control.  nothing is beyond HIS power and HIS purpose for my life is greater than the problem i’m experiencing right now.  GOD will reward your patience, if not in this life, HE will in eternity.  GOD is working behind the scenes for a purpose.

just a thought from the front porch…

do you want to feel better?...

in this matter of being lonely here is an awesome fact, john 15.15 (tev), JESUS said, i call you friends. HE's a friend that knows more about you than any other friend. HE knows more about you than you do. HE understands you.

so when i am lonely i need to remember that GOD is my companion because HE says “i'm always with you.” HE never asks you to do anything by yourself.

david got lonely sometimes. psalm 16.1 (tev), david said, your presence fills me with joy.

so that's a benefit of recognizing GOD's presence. HE says if you recognize it, GOD's presence cheers me up. it makes me feel better. when i'm lonely, GOD's presence cheers me up.

and then when i'm worried, GOD is my confidence.

isaiah 42.2-3 (nlt), when you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. when you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! when you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up.

reminds me of the three hebrew children, shadrach, meshach and abed-nego who walked through the fire. GOD walked through it with them. when they came out the ropes were burned off. they were protected.

you're going through a fire – some of you are going to go through difficulty this week. none of us can predict the problems we're going to face. none of us saw what was going to happen when we woke up on that tuesday, september 11 but in each day one thing we can be certain of: GOD's going through it with you. GOD is with you! when i'm worried, GOD is my confidence.

GOD told moses one day, you're going to lead the children of israel out of egypt into the promised land. moses started making excuses, “GOD, i can't do that! i'm insecure! i'm nothing! i can't speak!” GOD gave one answer to his excuses, “i will be with you. i will be your confidence.”

just a thought from the front porch…

the power to start over...

so if fatigue, failure and fear rob us of confidence then what restores it?

for one GOD's presence gives me the power to start over.

look at what changed the disciples. john 20.20 (niv), JESUS came and stood among them and … the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the LORD.

acts 4.13 (lb), when the council saw the boldness of peter and john and could see that they were ordinary men they were amazed and realized what being with JESUS had done for them.

these guys weren't phd's. they were just common, ordinary people. but they were bold. before the resurrection, they are cowering in fear in a room with the doors locked. now they're back out on the streets a few days later taking on the enemy, the opposition. what happened?

they had been with JESUS. not merely knowing HE's alive, but being with HIM, having a relationship.

are you aware that GOD is always with you? you lose your fear when GOD is near. HE's with you. GOD says, I'm always with you. JESUS said, low, I am always with you... i will never leave you nor forsake you.

that gives you confidence to start over. you can say, “LORD, i know YOU're with me. help me handle this.”

proverbs 14.26 (tev), reverence for the LORD gives confidence.

the secret of confidence. i think it's basically a SPIRITual problem. there's a lot of phony, baloney advice out there on how to build your confidence. it doesn't work. building confidence is a SPIRITual problem. GOD's presence encourages us to try again. the secret of confidence is to get in tune with GOD everyday.

just a thought from the front porch…

do you feel you are a failure?...

fatigue robs you of confidence and so does failure. matthew 26.56 (niv), all the disciples deserted JESUS and fled. these guys felt like a group of losers.

peter denied him. now they're having a pity party. they're second-guessing themselves. they're saying, “what went wrong?” JESUS was supposed to be the messiah and now HE's dead. why me? who cares? what now?

how do you handle failure? listen, if at first you don't succeed ... you're normal! welcome to the human race. life has its setbacks. murphy was an optimist. somebody said, "just about the time i think i'm going to make ends meet, somebody moves the ends."

another one is fear. fear robs you of confidence and that's the greatest one.

john 20.19 (lb), the disciples were meeting locked behind closed doors in fear of the jewish leaders. they were in fear. they had seen what happened to JESUS. and they weren't too excited about what might happen to their own lives.

do you ever play the “what if?” game? what if i fail? what if i never get married? what if i get cancer? what if somebody recognizes me in k-mart? the fear game!

we tend to imagine the worse. have you ever been driving one way and the h.p. makes a u-turn and starts following you? or your daughter comes home late at night from a date with a big grin on her face?

what do you worry about the most? the greatest worry is the fear of death. that's what easter is all about.

people don't want to talk about death. it's the last taboo. invite some people home for coffee and say, “let's talk about death” and watch what happens.

but hebrews 2.15 (cev) says that HE (JESUS) also died to rescue all of us who live each day in fear of dying.

what you're afraid of is the fear of the unknown. you can get to know GOD. that's what easter is all about. you don't have to be afraid of death. JESUS broke the bonds of death.

just a thought from the front porch…

the most common cause of discouragement…

there are many things that are fascinating about the easter story. one is the sudden change in the disciples. one minute they're defeated, the next minute they're dynamic. one minute they're crushed, the next minute they're confident. one minute they're having a pity party, the next minute they're taking on the world. what made the difference?

when you see JESUS CHRIST, when you know HIM personally, you will become a confident person.

john 20.19-20 (tev), it was late that sunday evening, and the disciples were gathered together behind locked doors, because they were afraid of the jewish authorities. then JESUS came and stood among them. "peace be with you," HE said. after saying this, HE showed them HIS hands and HIS side. the disciples were filled with joy at seeing the LORD.

have you ever wondered what is it that robs us of confidence?

well one thing is fatigue. as you’ll see the disciples here were fatigued, they were tired, dead tired.

notice it says, it was late that sunday evening.

it had been a rough week. they had palm sunday, they had the cleansing of the temple, they had the LORD's supper, they had gethsemane, they had the six trials, they had the crucifixion. and they are worn out.

and the most common cause of discouragement is physical and emotional exhaustion. things look worse when you're tired and you don't feel too good about it.

vince lombardi said, "fatigue makes cowards of all of us."

cartoon: psychologist to a client, "did this feeling of being an insignificant, dominated pipsqueak, with no self confidence happen suddenly? or did it develop normally with marriage and parenthood?"

when you get tired, you lose your confidence.

sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is go to sleep. it's amazing how much better things look after you've gotten a good night's sleep.

just a thought from the front porch…

you can do it…

if you want to receive the best from people and bring out the best in people, expect the best from them.

1 corinthians 13.7 (lb), if you love someone … you will always believe in him, always expect the best of him.

many times we don’t realize how as dads or moms we set our children up for either success or failure by our expectations of them. we do this as employers, as supervisors. your expectations have a profound influence on others because people tend to perform at the level they’re expected to perform.

you’ve heard this before. in 1968 there was a harvard psychologist named robert rosenthal. he published a study, which is now very famous called “the pygmalion in the classroom effect.” it studied the impact of teachers’ expectations on students in the classroom.

he did an experiment. he took a group of kindergartners through fifth grade students and gave them all a learning test. the next fall their new teachers were casually given the names of four, five, six high achievers. these people were given that title supposedly based on the test they’d had the previous year. the only problem was, what they didn’t know was that the test was rigged.

those children who had been labeled “high achievers” were simply chosen at random. there was no basis for that labeling. at the end of the year, the students were retested and the amazing results were the students whom the teachers thought had the most potential – they just thought they did – had actually outscored everybody else and had gained as many as 15 to 27 iq points in one year.

the teachers described these children that they thought were high achievers as happier, most curious, more affectionate than average and having a better chance of achieving later in life. but the only change during that year was the attitude of the teachers because they had been led to expect more of certain students the students came to expect more of themselves. the teachers communicated their positive expectations in terms of tone of voice, facial expression, even touch and posture. karl menninger concluded that attitudes are more important than facts.

what that says is if you want to build confident kids, confidence is more caught than it is taught. it’s how you believe in people, how you treat people. whatever you want people to be, treat them like you want them to become. if you are a supervisor you ought to learn that when you take pride in other people’s work, then they do too. every great leader knows the power of positive expectation. margaret my wife was awesome at this and those of you who have worked for her would say amen to that. i know you would.

just a thought from the front porch…