Rick Warren's Blog, page 621

How to Help Someone Find Hope and Healing, Part 1

No one is outside Jesus��� reach.

I believe that small groups are a vital part of helping so-called hopeless people find healing. One of the parts I like best about being in a small group is that you can pray for one another���s ���hopeless��� cases. We can lean upon the faith of others when we start to doubt.

Nothing Worthwhile Is Ever Easy

There are many things that work to keep us from completing our life missions. Over the years, I���ve debated whether the worst enemy is procrastination or discouragement. If Satan can���t get us to put off our life missions, then he���ll try to get us to quit altogether.

Are You Afraid of Making the Wrong Decision?

Often we���re afraid of making the wrong decision, and that creates stress.

Maybe you���re facing a decision about a major issue: ���Should I hold on, or should I let go?��� ���Should I get in, or should I get out?��� ���Should I get married?��� ���Should I find a new job?��� ���Should I move?���

Your Life Is Shaped by Your Thoughts

God is far more interested in changing your mind than changing your circumstances.

We want God to take away all of the problems, pain, sorrow, suffering, sickness, and sadness. But God wants to work on you first, because transformation won���t happen in your life until you renew your mind, until your thoughts begin to change.

Why is it so important that you learn how to manage your mind? Let me give you three reasons.

How to Have Lasting Change in Your Life

If you want to have lasting change in your life, you need to refocus your mind.

Specifically, you need to change your thought patterns from focusing on what you don���t want to focus on to what you do want to focus on. Because whatever you focus on is what you move toward.

God Understands You Can���t Change Overnight

When God wants to remove the defects in your life, he doesn't just snap his fingers so that it happens instantly. He does it incrementally. When God wants to make a mushroom, he takes six hours, but when he wants to make an oak tree, he takes 60 years.

If You Want to Change, Change Your Thinking

Change requires new thinking. In order to change, we must learn the truth and start making good choices, but we also must change the way we think.

The way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel determines the way you act. If you want to change the way you act, you start by changing the way you think. In addition, if you want to change the way you feel, you must start with the way you think.

You Have to Choose to Change

Change requires making choices. It's not enough to dream of changing. It's not enough to desire change. In order for you to change, you will need to make a decision. You must choose to change.

If You Want to Change, You Have to Face the Truth

The secret to personal change is not willpower. The secret is to know and face the truth. You must know and face the truth about yourself and your nature.

Nothing will change in your life until you know and face the truth about your weaknesses, your relationships, your successes and failures, and your past and future.

Remember: You���re Not Home Yet

As you strive to reach the goals that God has given you, it���s important to remember that life on Earth is just a temporary assignment. Knowing this truth should radically alter your values and fix your attention on the things that are eternally important.