Thoughts have power.
Recently I prayed that God would help me to capture negative thoughts
that threatened me. I was becoming
overwhelmed with the negative possibilities and not remembering Who held my
life in His hands. Much like the foxes
that spoil the vine, I asked for help to capture those negative thoughts and
silence them… to put them into a sound proof cage where they could no longer
wage war on my mind. I needed to squelch
them with the truth of God’s Word, because nothing else truly silences them. I can busy myself with music, reading,
hanging out with people… but those crazy negative nillies will still nip at my
heels.
Getting into the truth of His Word is where I can be truly
set free; believing what He says, since He is the King of kings and spoke the
world into existence. He has the
ultimate power… not those negative thoughts that threaten me... threaten my joy
and my peace. Whom will I believe? Will I believe the defeated foe or the
Creator? Again, going back to what the
Word says, there is power to silence the enemy of my heart.
If my thoughts, if our thoughts, go unchecked, they can ruin
a most blessed thing. The Lord was
specific in His Word about thoughts.
When thoughts come in and rise up against the truth, we need to bring “every
thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Here is another way to view thoughts… much
like mice, we see one and it’s slightly alarming and we buy a trap. If we leave the trap alone and don’t check it
to see if we have caught that mouse, that little critter will quickly have a
family and the multiplying will continue.
Those mice will cause an infestation which will take much more time and
effort to take care of. Be quick to take
care of that negative thought so that your thoughts for the next ten minutes,
afternoon, or day don’t become infested with other negative thoughts.
Our thoughts have power – positive and negative. Watch out to not let your thoughts camp out
on the negative. As you think negative
thoughts over and over, you are creating a worn path that can be difficult to
get off of… a rut in the road. There is
power in the living Word of God. Every
day challenge yourself to read that living Word, the Bible. Yet, don’t just read it. Ask the Lord to show you something from what
you just read and then ponder about it throughout the day. It will amaze you how He will feed you. Those negative thoughts will become smaller
and smaller, and even fade away.
If you are battling negative thoughts, take a time out and
reset your mind. Take time in the
Bible. Take time talking to God. He will help you overcome those negative
nillies, but you have to take the action and seek the change. He is right there to help you. I know because He helped me. He is so trustworthy!
Cheers.... Dawn
UPDATE OF HOW WE ARE
DOING
We moved in with the pastoral assistant, Cami, while the
school is on break. This helps both
sides with the cost of living. She is a
smart young woman and pleasant to hang out with.
We bought a small car that we have named Betty. She is a Mazda Verisa and looks to only be
available in Japan. She was imported as
a previously owned vehicle and has got some great zoom to her. We are getting more than 30 mpg in mixed
conditions. There is no way for cruise
control to work here except for the toll way since there are so many turns,
roundabouts, and such. With that in
mind, 30+ mpg is pretty great!
We are still acclimating to life here in New Zealand. Dawn has been having fun learning the lingo
and vocabulary. If you are not on
Facebook and would like her to send some of them your way, send her an email at
mcbrideflock@gmail.com. One such question was “What are sunnies?”
We are getting more and more into our roles for the next semester. Andrew will be teaching about the Gospel of
Mark as well as taking care of the AV and IT needs. Dawn will continue to learn the pastoral
assistant role with Cami. There is much
to take in and remember. With school on
break, we have had the opportunity to rest and get into a groove.
Dawn had the opportunity to go the Calvary Chapel Hamilton’s
women’s retreat at Waihi Beach. It was a
great time of teaching and meeting new friends.
The theme of the weekend was the full armor of God. From the write up above, you can see that
Dawn got fired up again. It was a great
weekend and she is still review her notes.
Andrew attended the Calvary Chapel Hamilton men’s breakfast
with the leadership team from CCBI.
There were roughly 30 men in attendance in a café just outside of
Hamilton. It was a great time of
fellowship and getting to hear what is on the heart of Tom and Sam as they head
with their families to Nepal. They will
be serving initially at a Bible college in Kathmandu.
CCBI hosted their first youth conference - Ignite. From the looks of it, CCBI will do it again
with the hopes of it growing. Two
speakers were brought in from the States and a youth group for Calvary Chapel
Wellington was in attendance. Small but
mighty, this youth conference was a great start of things to come.
Thank you for checking in and seeing how we are doing! We love you and appreciate more than you know!
