Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

— Luke 6:38 (KJV)

Giving and living selflessly do produce harvests in our lives. There is nothing wrong with desiring and expecting a harvest. Our motivation for helping others should not be to get something for ourselves, but God does tell us we will reap what we sow, and we can look forward to that benefit.

God promises to reward those who diligently seek Him (see Hebrews 11:6). The word reward in the original Greek text of the New Testament means, “wages received in this life” or “recompense.” In the Hebrew language, in which the Old Testament is written, the word reward means, “fruit, earnings, product, price, or result.” The word reward is used 68 times in the Amplified Bible version. God wants us to look forward to rewards of our obedience and good choices.

If we care about those who are poor and oppressed, God promises that we will not want, but if we hide our eyes from their need we shall have “many a curse” in our lives (see Proverbs 28:27). The writer of Proverbs even says that when we give to the poor we are lending to God (see Proverbs 19:17). I cannot imagine that God does not pay great interest on what is loaned to Him. I urge you to work to bring justice to the oppressed. That simply means that when you see something that you know is not right, you work to make it right.

Prayer of the Day: Lord, help me today to focus on helping other people, the less fortunate, and anyone who is suffering, rather than the reward, amen.

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If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

— 1 John 1:9 (NIV)

Perfectionism is fueled with the tyranny of the should and oughts. It is the constant nagging feeling of never being good enough. We think things like, I should pray better, read the Bible more, and be kinder. We instinctively want to be pleasing to God, and we are deeply afraid we aren’t. As a result, we believe God is disappointed with us because we don’t measure up.

But the pathway to God is not perfection. Some people in a crowd asked what they needed to do to please God, and the answer Jesus gave was, …Believe in the One Whom He has sent… (John 6:29 AMPC). More than anything, God wants us to trust Him and believe His Word. You can stop struggling to attain perfection and be thankful that you are righteous before God because of Jesus. You don’t have to buy or earn God’s love. It isn’t for sale—it’s free!

Prayer of the Day: Father, help me to realize that I don’t have to earn Your love or approval. I thank You that I am acceptable in Your sight because the sacrifice of Jesus has given me Your righteousness. I will live my life to please You today, not because I have to earn Your love, but because I want to show my love for You.

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He who is of a greedy spirit stirs up strife, but he who puts his trust in the Lord shall be enriched and blessed.

— Proverbs 28:25 (AMPC)

Probably 80 percent of the places we visit in our ministry have church members who are riddled with strife. Strife is the devil’s tool against us. It takes personal self-control to stay out of strife.

If you want to keep peace, you can’t always say everything you want to say. Sometimes you have to control yourself and apologize even when there is nothing in you that wants to do so. But if you sow the godly principle of harmony and unity today, a time will come when you will reap the blessings of all it can bring to you.

Prayer of the Day: Father, help me to immediately recognize and avoid strife, and to always walk in peace and self-control, amen.

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The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, because He has anointed Me [the Anointed one, the Messiah] to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity], to proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord [the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound.]

— Luke 4:18-19 (AMPC)

My husband, Dave, and I had been active in the church for a long time. At church, we had bright smiles and mixed well with other church members. I’m sure people thought we were the ideal couple.

But we weren’t ideal. We had a strife-laden marriage—and it showed in the home. When we arrived at church, we set aside all the strife for a period of time. After all, we did not want our friends to know what things were really like at home behind closed doors.

Dave and I had constant strife—but strife isn’t always open warfare. Strife is partially defined as an angry undercurrent.

We bickered and argued at times, but we also frequently pretended everything was fine between us. I look back now and believe that we didn’t fully realize we had a problem. The Bible teaches us that we speak out of our hearts. If we had only really listened to what we said about and to one another, we would have realized that something was wrong. For example, we made jokes in public about each other. “She thinks she’s the boss,” Dave would say. “She wants what she wants and stays on me until she gets it. Joyce wants to control everything and everybody.” Then he would pause to kiss me on top of my head and smile.

“I don’t think Dave’s hearing is very good,” I’d say. “I nearly always have to ask him four times to take out the garbage.” I’d smile, and everyone was supposed to know it was a joke.

Not everyone picked up on the undercurrents, but they were there. Those who frequently visited our home eventually saw even more chaos and underlying anger. But we smiled and said, “I’m only kidding,” when we put the other one down, so how could there be any real problems?

When the home atmosphere is terrible, the devil loves it. Division is his goal, and unfortunately, he is frequently winning in that situation. He loves it when people pretend and no one in the family actually faces the problems. That’s ideal for the powers of darkness. Satan would have kept on winning unless Dave and I had learned the dangers of strife and faced the truth about ourselves. We had to look at ourselves and admit how we had failed God and one another. We needed to acknowledge that our smiles and jokes only masked the pain.

If Dave and I were going to defeat the attacks of the devil, we had to make drastic changes. We had to fight the undercurrents and bring the darkness into the light.

This is the same message for all of us. We need to open ourselves to God’s Word and see our failings and shortcomings. We need to be able to say, “I have been wrong.”

Dave and I had both developed a bad habit—I’ll say it even stronger—Satan had made inroads into our minds. We had been justifying our behavior and blaming each other for our problems. We needed to be shown the error of our ways, and thank God, He did show us.

We had to study God’s Word extensively, and both of us had to be willing to humble ourselves in order for the atmosphere in our home to change from one of bickering, arguing, heated disagreement, and an angry undercurrent to one of peace and joy. The Holy Spirit worked with us, and we now enjoy peace. We respect each other and try to use good manners in private as well as in public.

We finally stopped listening to Satan’s lies. We began to use the weapons of God’s Word, praise, and prayer, and we have experienced great victory over the strongholds that once existed in our minds.

Prayer of the Day: Father, I’m so glad You came to deliver those who are oppressed. Thank You for helping me realize that my oppression comes from Satan, and for providing the weapons of your Word and prayer that I can use to break free from the devil’s powerful clutches. I pray, in the name of the Lord Jesus, that I will remain free both now and forever, amen.

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Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.

— Psalm 85:10 (NIV)

I love today’s scripture because it teaches us that in order to have God’s mercy, we must face truth, and that peace only comes from understanding righteousness with God. Jesus says that if we continue in His Word, then we will know the truth and it will set us free (see John 8:32). Some people avoid the truth because it is often painful to face. However, it is the only thing that makes us free. Once we face truth, we can ask for and receive God’s mercy.

In order to have peace with God, we must understand what it means to be in right standing with God through faith in Christ. When we know we are made right with God and that He loves and accepts us, we can have and enjoy peace with Him. If we don’t have peace with Him, we cannot enjoy peace with ourselves or with other people.

Jesus, who was perfect and knew no sin, became sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ (see 2 Corinthians 5:21). Receive your right standing with God through faith, and it will be life changing. You need not always feel that something is wrong with you, because God sees you as right through your faith in Jesus. We don’t do everything right, but God’s righteousness has been given to us as a gift, and the more we believe it, the more our actions will be right also.

Prayer of the Day: Father, thank You for mercy, righteousness, and peace. These are wonderful blessings from You, and I appreciate them and want to walk in them fully. Teach me to receive and enjoy the gifts You have given to me.

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For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]….

— Hebrews 4:12 (AMPC)

I have been thinking about the power of God’s Word this morning and all the changes I have seen in my life and thousands of other lives because of it. Jesus is the Word made flesh, so when we read, study, and meditate on the Word of God, we are fellowshipping with Jesus. As His Word becomes part of us, we are transformed into His image (see 2 Corinthians 3:18). His Word has inherent power in it, and it changes us!

We are instructed in the Bible to meditate on the Word of God, and that simply means to think about it, roll it over and over in our minds, speak it, and know that as we do, it is renewing our minds and teaching us to think as God thinks. Our thoughts are extremely important because they go before our words and all of our actions. God has a good plan for each of us and we will see it come to pass as we renew our minds (see Romans 12:2).

We seem to find it very easy to meditate on our problems. We call it worry! It is a bad habit that can easily be eliminated from our lives by learning to meditate on God’s Word instead. Each time a worry or a fear comes to your mind, find a Scripture that teaches you that God will take care of the problem for you and meditate on it instead of worrying. For example, if you are having financial difficulty, you can worry all day and night about it, or you can think about what God’s Word says concerning Him taking care of you: Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully (1 Peter 5:7 AMPC).

God’s Word has an answer for every need we have. I intend to spend a lot of time today just thinking about the power that is in God’s Word, and I pray that you will join me. God’s Word contains the power we need to be successful in all areas of our lives.

Prayer of the Day: Father, help me discipline myself to meditate on Your Word. Let it become a habit in my life. I ask You to continue teaching me Your Word and renewing my mind accordingly.

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I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God. Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head; many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me….

— Psalm 69:3-4

Clearly, David the psalmist was weary when he penned the words of today’s scripture. He actually says, “I am worn out.” All kinds of situations can drain our physical and emotional resources, and too much stress over a long period of time definitely causes weariness.

When we are weary, we need our strength restored, and the Bible says that God will help us: But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint (Isaiah 40:31 NIV).

I believe we can make ourselves weary through the way we think and talk about the situations we face in life. No doubt, some of them are draining because of all they demand from us, but we can make them better or worse with our thoughts and words.

The Holy Spirit is available to help, strengthen, and restore us. He will not help us complain or be negative about the pressures we face, but He will help us think and speak about them according to God’s Word. He will give us wisdom to deal with our problems effectively. He will give us grace and make things easier than they would otherwise be. He will strengthen us in faith, and He will help us hope in the Lord, which, according to Isaiah 40:31, is where we will renew our strength.

Prayer of the Day: Lord, when I am weary, give me the grace to hope in You, trusting You to renew my strength, amen

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And He said to them, [As for you] come away by yourselves to a deserted place, and rest a while—for many were [continually] coming and going, and they had not even leisure enough to eat.

— Mark 6:31 (AMPC)

Frequently we complain and live silently angry lives while at the same time we continue to do the very things that make us angry. We cannot blame others for what is ultimately our own responsibility. A normal Christian life should be lived within the boundaries of balanced living. Once a person has a serious case of burnout, it is not easy to fix. None of us, not even those of us “called by God,” can break His natural laws without paying the penalty. Even though we may work for God, we cannot live without limits. Jesus rested. He walked away from the demands of the crowds and took time for renewal.

Many of God’s most precious and well-known saints have suffered from weariness and burnout with a tendency toward depression. We must learn that not all of our problems are spiritual; some of them are physical. We often blame the devil for things that are our own fault. We must learn to say no and not fear the loss of relationships. I have come to the conclusion that if I lose a relationship because I tell someone no, I really never had a true relationship at all.

Prayer of the Day: Lord, give me wisdom to know when I must rest and be renewed. Help me to adjust my schedule when I need to be refueled, amen.

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The Lord is good to those who wait [confidently] for Him, to those who seek Him [on the authority of God’s word].

— Lamentations 3:25 (AMP)

Sometimes when you’ve had a long series of painful or disappointing things happen, you can get to a point where you are just expecting more of what you’ve already had. But if you are expecting something bad to happen, those expectations will steal your joy and make it almost impossible to live a victorious life.

Instead of expecting the worst, choose to expect the best. Decide in your quiet time with God that you are going to hope for and expect good things. When you do, this opens the door to God’s plan in your life (see Lamentations 3:25).

The next time you are having a bad day, examine your expectations, and if you find they are not what they should be, you can quickly make an adjustment that will bring God’s reassuring peace and uncontainable joy back into your life.

Prayer of the Day: Father, anytime I feel discouraged or weary, help me remember that there is always hope. Help me be filled with hope in You and positive expectation. You are good, and I believe You want to be good to me, amen.

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And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude].

— Ephesians 4:23 (AMPC)

Adapted from the resource Closer to God Each Day – by Joyce Meyer1 MIN READ

God wants us to always maintain a good attitude for two reasons. First, it glorifies Him and encourages other people to remain positive when they have problems; and second, it allows Him to work in our lives, bringing help and deliverance from our struggles.

Always having a good attitude is difficult unless we receive God’s grace to do so. Jesus said that apart from Him, we could do nothing (see John 15:5), but through Him we can do all things (see Philippians 4:13).

Don’t wait until you are tempted to have a bad attitude but pray daily that no matter what comes your way, you can endure it with a good attitude. We will always be tempted, but we can pray not to give in to the temptation.

A good attitude is one of our greatest assets. It keeps us hopeful no matter what is happening in our lives.

Prayer of the Day: Father, I trust You to grant me strength to face every difficulty I encounter. Help me keep a good attitude, filled with Your Holy Spirit, and always be thankful in every situation, amen.

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And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

— Genesis 1:31 (ESV)

When God had completed His six days of creation, He took time to look over everything, and according to the Amplified Bible, He saw that …it was very good and He validated it completely… (Genesis 1:31 AMP). By this time in the creation story, God had already created man and woman (see Genesis 1:27). So, when He pronounced that everything was “very good,” it included Adam and Eve, who represent all of humanity. Everyone God made is good, including you and me.

Many people feel worthless, insecure, and unacceptable, which does not agree with God’s opinion of us. He validates us completely. God knows everything about each of us, and He loves us unconditionally. God approves of us; He may not approve of everything we do, but He does approve of who we are as His beloved children. He does not want us to go through life discouraged, disappointed, wounded, or feeling bad about ourselves. He wants us to think about ourselves like He thinks of us.

Throughout His Word, God lets us know what He thinks about us. It says we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14 ESV). It says He rejoices over us with gladness and quiets us with His love (see Zephaniah 3:17). It promises that He has good plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11) and that He will complete the good work He has begun in us (see Philippians 1:6). It calls us the apple of His eye (see Psalm 17:8). And it says that He loves us with an everlasting love (see Jeremiah 31:3). Hopefully you can see that God approves of and enjoys you.

I encourage you to approve of and enjoy yourself as well. This may take some time for you, especially if you have been deeply wounded or if you have experienced things that have made you feel unlovable, unacceptable, or inferior to others. Never base what is true on your feelings because they don’t always agree with God’s Word.

I had to reach a point in my life where I had to decide to agree with what God’s Word says about me, even though I could have viewed myself as “damaged goods” because of sexual abuse by my father. Choosing to enjoy and accept myself is one of the best decisions I have ever made. God does not create anything worthless. He is good, and everything He does is good. We cannot believe that God created us and also believe we are worthless. Begin to accept and enjoy yourself where you are, and God will help you get to where you need to be.

Prayer of the Day: Father, show me Your will for me and help me be courageous enough to believe I am good, and to make choices that agree with Your Word. I want the life that You want for me, amen.

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You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You.

— Isaiah 26:3 (AMPC)

If you want to live a peaceful, joy-filled, abundant life, you need to understand it all begins with the thoughts you choose to think. Your mind is connected to every feeling you have and every action you take.

A worried, anxious life begins with thoughts like this: How am I going to do everything I have to do? My life is impossible! This is more than I can handle!

But a contented, happy life begins with thoughts like this: God loves me, and He will take care of everything in my future. He will give me the strength and ability to do each thing I need to do as it comes up.

You can choose the thoughts you want to dwell on. Your mind is connected to every part of your life, so choose to focus on godly thoughts today in order to experience the life Jesus came to give you.

Prayer of the Day: Thank You, Father, for helping me think positive, godly thoughts. I am grateful that I am not a prisoner to negative thinking and that I can choose to be happy, and joy filled.

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We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.

— 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NLT)

Nobody is successful in any venture just by wishing they would be. Successful people make a plan and talk to themselves about that plan constantly. You can think things on purpose, and if you make what you think about match what you actually want to do, your feelings may not like it, but they will go along.

I slept great last night, and when I woke up at 5:00 a.m., I didn’t feel like getting up. It was so cozy under the fluffy cover, and I felt like staying right there. But I had a plan. I had decided how many hours I would write today, and in order to do that I had to get up. I thought, I am going to get up now, and I got up!

Do you make an effort to choose your thoughts, or do you just meditate on whatever falls into your head, even if it is in total disagreement with what you have said you want out of life? When your thoughts are going in a wrong direction, do you capture them and submit them to Christ as the Bible instructs (see 2 Cor. 10:5)?

I want to encourage you today—the good news is you can change. As I have said for years, we are in a war and the mind is the battlefield. We either win or lose our battles based on winning or losing the war in our minds. Learn to think according to the Word of God, and your emotions will start lining up with your thoughts.

If you have had years of experiencing wrong thinking and letting your emotions lead you as I did, making the change may not be easy, and it will definitely require a commitment of study, time, and effort. But the results will be worth it. Don’t say, “I am just an emotional person, and I can’t help the way I feel.” Take control. You can do it!

Prayer of the Day: Father, please help me think thoughts that You approve of and quickly cast down the ones that You don’t approve of. Help me think things that are pleasing to You and that will release Your power into my life.

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And you [He made alive], when you were dead (slain) by [your] trespasses and sins in which at one time you walked [habitually]. You were following the course and fashion of this world [were under the sway of the tendency of this present age], following the prince of the power of the air. [You were obedient to and under the control of] the [demon] spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience [the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God].

— Ephesians 2:1-2 (AMPC)

I find a great deal of comfort in thinking about who I used to be and who I have become. It helps me not to be discouraged when I make mistakes or find that I still struggle over some issues. I’m greatly encouraged when I consider where I started and where I am now.

In Ephesians 2, Paul described those outside of Christ. He wrote that unbelievers follow the prince of the power of the air, who is Satan, and they follow the way their master leads. In verse 1, he pointed out that all were once dead through their sins, but believers are now alive in Jesus Christ. He tells us we’re not governed or led by our lower nature—the impulses of the flesh.

Many Christians have trouble in this area because they haven’t learned to control their thoughts. A lady once told me, “It simply didn’t occur to me that I needed to direct my mind and keep it healthy and positive. If ministers preached or taught about the control of our thoughts, I never heard it. One day, however, I read an article about the power of thoughts, and God convicted me. That’s when I knew I needed to change my thinking.”

This lady said she drove down the street of a busy city and she spotted a sign, a cartoon of a car with big eyes for the front lights and tears flowing, and the words, “Please help me! I need an oil change.”

As she passed by, she thought, I need a mind change. I don’t like being the way I am, letting my mind go wherever it wants. Part of my responsibility as a child of God is to keep my thoughts healthy and strong.

“I want to make it clear that I went to church,” she said, “and I had been active for years. I knew a lot of Scripture, and I even did some volunteer work at the church. But I didn’t control my thoughts. Even when I sang in church, my mind jumped from subject to subject. We’d be singing about joy and grace, and I’d think about the dishes still in the sink, the unfinished laundry, or what I wanted to eat for lunch.

“I attended church, and I was faithful, but I was not faithful in attending to the Word. I listened when the preachers quoted Scripture. I usually followed along with my own Bible, but I didn’t really think about what I was hearing or what my eyes were reading. I was doing the right things outwardly, but I wasn’t thinking the right things. My mind was a mess, and I didn’t know what to do about it.”

“I need a mind change,” she suddenly said aloud to herself. Just then, she actually pondered the words she had spoken. She was like the car on the sign—she needed a change—a mind change. She needed to let the Holy Spirit direct her thoughts instead of the devil. As she prayed, she felt confident there would be a positive change.

She thought to herself, Is there anything I am supposed to do? She realized that if she didn’t make lifestyle changes, the devil would soon make the new thinking as muddy and gunky as the old thinking was.

For the next several days, she looked up all the scriptures she could find that used the word study or meditate. She also looked up scriptures that talked about the mind or thoughts. She read those verses, wrote them on slips of paper, and pondered them.

Here are three of them:

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he… (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV).

And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude] Ephesians 4:23 AMPC).

My hands also will I lift up [in fervent supplication]to Your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on Your statutes (Psalm 119:48 AMPC).

The more she meditated on the right things, the less trouble she had with Satan trying to control her thoughts. That’s how it works with all of us: The more we focus on God, the less often the devil can defeat us.

Prayer of the Day: Thank You, Father God, for giving me a mind change. Help me always to be free to serve You with my heart, my soul, and my mind. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, I pray, amen.

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Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.

— Psalm 37:5 (NKJV)

I see more clearly than ever before how simple and beautiful faith is and how self-effort complicates life and steals peace and joy. Man’s mind plans his own way (see Proverbs 16:9), but God’s ways are much higher than ours and they always work better (see Isaiah 55:9). I have finally learned that whenever I feel frustrated, it almost always indicates that I have trusted myself to do what only God can do. It is my signal to return to full faith in God and once again enjoy His peace.

Apart from faith we cannot please God (see Hebrews 11:6), and apart from Him, we can do nothing (see John 15:5). If you are worried or feel burdened by anything, I urge you to let it go and return to simple faith in God without delay. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass (Psalm 37:5 NKJV). God already has a perfect plan for your situation, and as you rest in Him, He will work!

Prayer of the Day: Father, thank You that You are working in my life while I rest in You. I trust You to do the right thing at the right time. Help me walk in faith at all times.

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Sustain me, my God, according to your promise, and I will live; do not let my hopes be dashed.

— Psalm 119:116 (AMPC)

We all experience disappointment, such as when we want and expect something to happen, and it doesn’t. We feel as the psalmist must have felt when he wrote the words of today’s scripture—as though our hopes have been dashed. The answer to disappointment is to trust God to always do the best thing for us. Just because you and I want something doesn’t mean it is right for us.

We are individuals, and God has a personalized plan for each of us. What is right for someone else may not be best for you. I encourage you not to fight against life. Learn to relax in God, and when you do feel disappointed, shake it off and keep going.

You can be comforted when you experience disappointment by knowing that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your future. If He doesn’t give you what you ask for, you can be confident that the reason is that He has something better in mind. His plan will unfold little by little, and you will soon realize how much He loves you as He works in your life.

Prayer of the Day: Father, when I am disappointed, help me remember that I can receive comfort from You and that You will always do the best thing for me as I trust You, amen.

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Sustain me, my God, according to your promise, and I will live; do not let my hopes be dashed.

— Psalm 119:116 (AMPC)

We all experience disappointment, such as when we want and expect something to happen, and it doesn’t. We feel as the psalmist must have felt when he wrote the words of today’s scripture—as though our hopes have been dashed. The answer to disappointment is to trust God to always do the best thing for us. Just because you and I want something doesn’t mean it is right for us.

We are individuals, and God has a personalized plan for each of us. What is right for someone else may not be best for you. I encourage you not to fight against life. Learn to relax in God, and when you do feel disappointed, shake it off and keep going.

You can be comforted when you experience disappointment by knowing that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your future. If He doesn’t give you what you ask for, you can be confident that the reason is that He has something better in mind. His plan will unfold little by little, and you will soon realize how much He loves you as He works in your life.

Prayer of the Day: Father, when I am disappointed, help me remember that I can receive comfort from You and that You will always do the best thing for me as I trust You, amen.

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And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

— Philippians 4:7 (AMPC)

Years ago, I went to a doctor because I was constantly sick. He told me the symptoms were the result of being under stress. I wasn’t getting enough sleep, and I was eating improperly, and pushing myself too hard.

Stress is a normal part of everyone’s life. God has created us to withstand a certain amount of pressure and tension. The problem comes when we push beyond our limitations and ignore the warnings our body gives us when it hurts or is exhausted.

I urge you to take good care of yourself, because if you wear out the body you have, you cannot go to a store and buy a new one. Many of the things we do that give us stress overload are things we could change if we would. Be honest with yourself about why you are doing some of the things you do and let God help you prune off the ones that are wearing you out and bearing no good fruit.

Peace is meant to be the normal condition for every believer in Jesus Christ. He is the Prince of Peace, and in Jesus we find our own inheritance of peace. It is a gift from the Holy Spirit, which He gives as we live in obedience to His Word.

Prayer of the Day: Lord Jesus, thank You for the peace You give—peace that operates in the midst of a storm. And because of Your peace, I can manage my stress today and every day, amen.

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Rejoice in the Lord always [delight, gladden yourselves in Him]; again I say, Rejoice! Let all men know and perceive and recognize your unselfishness (your considerateness, your forbearing spirit) . . . Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God.

— Philippians 4:4-6 (AMPC)

You need to develop an “attitude of gratitude.” This doesn’t mean you should live with your heads in the clouds and pretend nothing negative exists. It simply means you make it your goal in life to be as positive as possible.

Go to bed tonight pondering everything you have to be thankful for. Do the same first thing tomorrow morning. Thank God for everything—a convenient parking place; the fact you can walk, see, or hear; your children. Don’t become discouraged with yourself when you fall short, and don’t quit. Keep at it until you have developed new habits.

Prayer of the Day: Father, I have so much to thank You for, but mostly, I thank You for saving me and for being with me all the time. I love You, amen.

http://www.joycemeyer.org