You can’t overcome impatience in a hurry

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Steve Simms

Patience isn’t a prisoner to time frames and to-do lists. Patience isn’t upset by delay. Patience appreciates moments, not just results.

Patience waits without complaining. It endures with inner peace because it never lets go of hope. However, anger frequently tosses patience overboard.

Every frustration is an opportunity to grow your patience. Patience is the ability to trust God’s timing rather than your own.

Patience trumps the tedious by outlasting it. It triumphs over annoyance. Patience remains unruffled. Although patience isn’t very popular, it can save much wasted effort and frustration.

Patience is power — the power of restraint — the power not to be pulled, pushed, or pressured in the wrong direction. Patience can overcome great obstacles and solve major problems.

Patience is endurance of difficulty without anger or retaliation. Delay doesn’t make patience disappear. It reveals it (or reveals the lack of it).

Patience is the ability to continue to demonstrate love, even when you’re tempted to act with irritation and/or anger. It waits with kindness.

Rivers are patient. Sometimes they flow fast; sometimes slow. Like a river, patience doesn’t rush in the wrong direction.

If you build your life with mental blocks, you’ll box yourself in. Build with patience instead. Patience isn’t about knowing how to wait. Instead it is the willingness to calmly wait. You can’t overcome impatience in a hurry.

Patience doesn’t get irritated with and/or try to silence people who speak against injustice. It listens with compassion.

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Loving thru the fruit of the Holy Spirit

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Steve Simms

The fruit of the Spirit is love.

  • Joy is love shared.
  • Peace is when love meets anxiety.
  • Patience is love over time.
  • Kindness is love in action.
  • Goodness is the character of love.
  • Faithfulness is the loyalty of love.
  • Gentleness is the humility of love.
  • Self-control is restraint produced by love.

For more about practical ways the Holy Spirit works to produce His fruit in human lives, go to: https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Early-Christianity-Steve-Simms/dp/1689381213.

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Inner peace — a beautiful release that makes anxiety cease

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Steve Simms

Without peace of mind, life will always seem unkind. Anxiety will make you feel like a victim instead of an overcomer. If you continually welcome thoughts and feelings that disturb your inner peace, anxiety will be your way of life.

Distraction from anxiety is nice, but genuine peace of mind greatly surpasses it. Inner peace is a beautiful release from mental torment that makes anxiety cease.

Some people embrace anxiety and destroy their inner peace. Life’s better when we embrace inner peace and drive out our anxiety. Beware of the disturbers of your peace. Avoid things like: anger, fear, worry, bitterness, hostility, and/or resentment. Learning not to take offense is a key to inner peace.

Inner peace isn’t obtained by passivity, but by intentionally pursuing hope and by opposing the thoughts and feelings that try to disrupt it. Politicians like to say they’ll “fight” for you, but if you want real victory fight for yourself and overcome the theft of your inner peace.

To recognize and appreciate the beauty of life is the beginning of inner peace. Thoughts and behaviors that diminish your inner peace are probably best avoided. To resist and refute the disturbers of your inner peace is a key to contentment.

The more you resist the disturbers of inner peace and expel them from your mind and heart, the more room you make for “Christ in you.” Jesus spoke and calmed a storm on the Sea of Galilee. Hearing His voice speak in your heart can calm your storm and give you peace.

It’s very hard to be consistently happy without peace of mind. Jesus said, “My peace I give you.” It’s the best gift in the world.

Practice preemptive peace. Cultivate peace in your own heart, even when living in hostile, angry, and violent times. Peace isn’t freedom from disagreements or disputes, but maintaining respect and kindness in the midst of them. Peacemakers have learned how to maintain harmonious relationships, even when there’s open disagreement.

Peace is when conflict is handled with kindness, instead of by hostility, hatred, or violence. It’s not just the absence of conflict, but also the presence of fairness and respect for human rights.

When we work for what we want by helping people instead of by insulting or harming them, the world will be closer to peace. Lasting peace involves forgiveness, because without out it, new conflict can break out at any moment.

For more about inner peace, go to: https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Early-Christianity-Steve-Simms/dp/1689381213/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

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Joyful thoughts to give you joy

Posted on July 23, 2020 by Steve Simms

Too often we let the weeds of life overrun and destroy our joy, gladness, and delight. An unhappy heart needs weeding. Joy is contagious, but you can’t catch it from unhappy people or from people who mask their heart. Life offers plenty of alternatives to joy, but why would you want one?

Too many human hearts are like fire hydrants. They are designed by God to overflow with joy, but plugged up tight. Pride sometimes has a difficult time being joyful, because joy can look so undignified (but it sure is fun). If you are a joy to others, even when you don’t feel like it, you’ll soon encounter fresh joy in your own heart.

It’s a joy to be around — simply to be alive, to exist, and to get around. If you don’t choose to be joyful, but instead wait for joy to just happen to you, you probably wont be joyful very often. Ongoing joy requires mental toughness — the refusal to allow negative thoughts and attitudes to steal your joyfulness.

Joy is a universal human language. When you see it, it needs no translation. If someone is continually unhappy, perhaps you don’t want to follow him, because he’s not going to lead you to joy.

The more you magnify your focus on good things in your life and minimize your focus on bad things, the greater your joy will be. Since joy is an internal experience of the heart that flows into daily life, if the heart is shut down, joy is deleted from life.

Joy involves learning to respond to words and events with inner peace, trust, and hope, instead of with anger, worry, fear, or panic. Too often we passively wait for life to give us joy, instead of learning to cultivate the inner joy of living. Joy flows from inside us, when we vividly recognize and deeply appreciate how fortunate we are to be alive.

Joy is an undaunted sense of well being, hope, and appreciation, even during difficult circumstances, produced by trust in God. As a noun, joy is an emotion; as a verb, it’s something that you do. Joy in the beauty you see around you today.

The more you’re aware of, focused on, and grateful for the positive things in your life, the greater your joy. Joy is much more than mere distraction from your problems. It’s blissful focus on and delightful infatuation with beauty and goodness.

Joy is much deeper than superficial pleasure. It’s the overflow of an untroubled, grateful, and delighted heart. When the heart isn’t weighed down by worries, fears, or other anxieties and troubling thoughts, joy flows from it naturally.

Joy wasn’t intended to be an occasional occurrence but an ongoing inner flow. The Bible says, “Rejoice in the Lord, always.” Perhaps a better name for “a leap of faith” in obedience to the Holy Spirit, would be “a joy jump.”

This gives me joy: Connecting with people heart-to-heart; Creative writing; Worshipping the living Jesus; Praying in tongues.

Joy is alignment with Christ. The more we submit to the risen Jesus, the greater our joy:

Jesus
Overriding
Yourself.

Check out my book, The Joy of Early Christianity @ https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Early-Christianity-Steve-Simms/dp/1689381213

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Fresh & practical thoughts about love overcoming hate

Posted on July 22, 2020 by Steve Simms

Love is a better way to disagree than hate. Let’s disagree better. Persistent love can transform a foe into a friend.

Confronting evil with love is a great weapon against evil. It doesn’t escalate the evil, but exposes it in the heart of those who wield it. When hate is raging, love can overcome it with noncooperation and an ongoing assault of kindness.

It’s easy to love people we consider to be worthy of love. It’s hard to love those we believe to be unworthy of it.

If we believe someone is influenced by evil, perhaps we should respond with love and compassion, instead of with anger and hostility. People caught up in evil need love and compassion the most.

If you learn to see the image of God in people, you’ll never again look at them the same way. If you give cruel words a kind reply, the person who spoke those words will be amazed at your love. Love drives out indifference and causes you to want to know about the problems, pain, and injustice that people are going through now (or have gone through in the past).

Beware of love these wreckers: impatience, unkindness, envy, bragging, pride, rudeness, ego, anger, blame, corruption, and dishonesty. (See 1 Corinthians 13.) Hate hardens hearts. Love unfolds them like flowers opening in the sun.

Love isn’t just a feeling. It is actions of concern, kindness, compassion, and sharing. Love looks at people with an open heart that cares about them and their concerns.

Love is when concern for others eclipses concern for self. It focuses attention and caring on other people and away from self. Love deprioritizes self. You can’t control whether or not people love you, but you can train yourself to love and be kind to people.

If people don’t believe you care about them, they won’t accept your opinion, no matter how strongly you argue for it. You can be the reason someone feels loved today. Why not?

Because love isn’t based on agreement or approval, it’s able to cross the lines that divide people and release kindness, caring, and compassion. Christians are told to “overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21) and “repay evil with blessing” (1 Peter 3:9). How are we doing with that?

God’s love isn’t narrow. It’s broad. When it gets ahold of you, it makes you love everybody (even people you don’t even like).

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Supernatural combo — the living Jesus & the Bible

Posted on July 21, 2020 by Steve Simms

Christ-followers are called to be led by the Spirit and surrendered to the rule (kingdom) of God. When Jesus is more than religions information and becomes within you, living animation, you experience supernatural transformation.

Christians are called to live and function by the power of “Christ in you,” not by our own power or ability. Church trains people to look for power in a program, a sermon, a liturgy, and even in hype. But real power comes from the living Jesus. The Bible acknowledged and preached, but never read, leaves church attendance pretty dead.

Untold millions of people have found healing, comfort, and strength thru reading the Bible with a humble heart. I’m one of them. When I read the Bible with an open heart, insights & inspiration jump off it’s pages. When I read the Bible my eyes don’t just scan ancient words. Instead I hear a living voice speaking to me.

Instead of imposing religious rules, the living Jesus changes people from the inside out. Then they want to obey Him.

Unlike ancient Israel, biblical Christianity doesn’t focus on a country, but on the living, resurrected Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t accept the authority of the religious establishment of the time, the Pharisees and Sadducees. His authority came directly from God the Father.

Sometimes we complicate simple statements from the Bible, as an excuse not to obey them. Here’s an example: “Love your enemies.”

Search for my book: Beyond Church Ekklesia.

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Diversion from self-focus is the road to happiness.

Posted on July 21, 2020 by Steve Simms

If you can use your thoughts to make yourself unhappy, you can learn to use them to make yourself happy. When your mind is focused away from yourself and on positive and enjoyable things or activities, that’s happiness. Diversion from self-focus is the road to happiness.

Happy people don’t have to work at having fun, because they spontaneously enjoy life, from the inside out. Happy people make the world a better place by carrying and spreading joy and appreciation everywhere they go. You can do that if you develop the ability to be happy from the inside out.

If you wait on something or someone to make you happy, it might take awhile. Go ahead and jump the gun. Be happy today. Harness happiness. When you have happiness flowing from the inside out, you don’t need much outward entertainment.

Happiness by design (creating an ongoing, joyful, interior environment in your mind and heart) is much more effective than hoping to stumble into happiness. Perhaps it’s better to enjoy happiness right where you are, instead of constantly pursuing it.

Nobody can make you be kind. You have to choose to be kind; the same with being happy. Happiness is more about enjoying where you are and what you have, instead of forcefully trying to get something or somewhere else.

As anger increases, happiness decreases. You can’t have both at the same time. Happy people have learned to enjoy life, even in difficult circumstances.

It’s hard to maintain a happy facade, but a heart trained to continually enjoy life, spontaneously flows with happiness. If you can find no reason or excuse to be happy, just be happy for the joy of it. Happiness is fun!

Happy people avoid negative assumptions. They don’t want to get upset for no good reason. Search for: The Joy Of Early Christianity.

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Use your gazers well

Posted on July 19, 2020 by Steve Simms

When you continually graze on negative thoughts, feelings, words, and images, you crowd joy out of your life. Seeing people who disagree with you as a continual threat is a powerful way to keep yourself stressed out.

Raise your eyes beyond life’s haze of delays and gaze on things that amaze. Gaze at the goodness of God. Biblical Christianity is to continually gaze at the living Jesus, not to occasionally glance at Him. Christ-followers are called to align with the living Jesus and not with our own opinions, feelings, or political preferences.

When it comes to other people’s opinions, it’s much easier to glance and disregard them, than it is to ponder and understanding them. Perhaps God wants you to show kindness and love to people you disagree with, instead of trying to prove them wrong.

Overcome conflict with kindness, compassion, and humility. Pride isn’t a God-given right — just the opposite. “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

If you’ll be sincerely reflective about other people’s perspective, you may not agree, but you’ll understand them better. Love listens.

Perhaps it’s time
To look at race
Thru the eyes
Of kindness.

Race was invented as an excuse
For human trafficking and other abuse.
It has no good use.

Gaze at kindness. Search for: Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind.

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Looking & behaving like Christians (making faith real)

Posted on July 19, 2020 by Steve Simms

Church is too often like a car salesperson who lectures people about his vehicles, but doesn’t let anybody drive them. Many Christians have never been trained how to interact with the living Jesus thru out the week and don’t know how to do it.

Because of that we often don’t manifest the fruit of the Holy Spirit. However, that is how Christ-followers are recognized — by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Hey, Christians, do the “one anothers.” Teach, admonish, confess your sins to, submit to, encourage, love, (etc.) one another. Politics and race shouldn’t stop Christians from obeying the Bible commands to love, submit to, serve, and encourage one another.

Biblical Christianity isn’t about a weekly religious lecture full of conjecture, but the living Jesus being your daily director. The Bible talks about “the hope of glory.” That’s not “hearing sermons” or “going to church” or “being good.” It’s “Christ in you.”

No one will ever disagree with you who God doesn’t love. “God so loved the world . . .” If we let that thought give us more understanding and goodwill, we could work together to solve problems, instead of blaming and shaming each other. Even people you disagree with, often have good intentions.

When we replace anger and divisiveness with goodwill, we improve the quality of life for us and for others. If you make someone smile from their heart, it will boomerang and make your heart smile as well. Do the Word, church, and don’t just hear it no more, no more (inspired by the song, Hit the Road Jack).

For more on making Christianity real, search for: The Joy Of Early Christianity book.

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Life without a clear focus can become like a circus

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Steve Simms

Little done with focus is usually far more powerful than much done like a circus. Focus is powerful. What you continually pay attention to will mold you into its image.

We American Christians need to look beyond politics and reject demonic attitudes and accusations coming from both parties. Our politics would be more effective if it focused on working together to solve problems instead of on accusing the other party.

Any politician can accuse, but it takes an exceptional one to negotiate across the aisle and make deals for the good of the nation. Guilty people often accuse others, to deflect attention away from their own guilt. Perhaps we need leaders who don’t accuse.

Your own emotions and desires make for a fickle focus. If you stop focusing on what you don’t like, and begin to focus on how you can make things better, hope and creativity will fill your life.

People who daily focus on following the living Jesus are continually empowered and transformed by His presence. Since the living Jesus captured my focus, distractions have gradually faded away. People who follow and obey the risen Jesus have a heart connection and focus on what is much deeper than politics, race, or even family.

Anxiety is worthless; inner peace is priceless. Let the living Jesus change them out for you.

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