Fear Not!

Last Thursday, Ray Hilbert was in town to conduct a seminar entitled Trusting God In This Economy. As you can imagine, fear was one of the primary subjects.

Ray mentioned seven things that fear can do to a leader:
1. Fear replaces faith
2. Fear destroys dreams
3. Fear steals our joy and blessings
4. Fear spoils victories
5. Fear paralyzes us
6. Fear robs us of memories (gives us amnesia)
7. Fear causes us to hesitate because of disbelief

He then shared 12 words to live by that will help eliminate fear:

• Nothing to lose
• Nothing to hide
• Nothing to prove
• Nothing to fear

Nothing to lose - we must remember that everything is God's. If we feel like it’s ours, we will be fearful to lose it.

Nothing to hide - if your local newspaper was to do an expose on you or your company, would they uncover dirt? If your hiding something, that produces fear.

Nothing to prove - If we can live with the knowledge that God’s love is enough, this will eradicate the fear of people finding out we are not good enough.

If we can learn to live with these 12 words at the forefront of our minds, I believe we will have much more peace in our lives!

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

Living in the Moment

Yesterday, we hosted a seminar entitled, Trusting God in this Economy. Ray Hilbert, the founder of Truth at Work led the session and there were some great points made.

One that really got my attention is that God made our minds in such a way that we cannot think of two opposing thoughts at the same time. For example, it is impossible to be angry with someone and be praying for them at the same time. We can waffle back and forth, but we cannot do both at once.

Along those lines, a great way to live your life is to live in the moment.

Ray shared that we only have three options. We can live in the past, in the future, or in the moment. When we live in past, we can experience guilt. When we live in future, we can experience fear. Living in the present is the only way to truly experience joy and peace.

A great attitude to have is this, “There is nowhere in the world I’d rather be than right here, right now.”

I AM
I was regretting the past and fearing the future.
Suddenly my Lord was speaking.
“My name is I AM.”
He paused. I waited. He continued,
“When you live in the past with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I am not there.

My name is not I WAS.
When you live in the future, with its problems and fears, it is hard. I am not there.
My name is not I WILL BE.
When you live in this moment it is not hard. I am here,
My name is I AM.”

Trusting God In This Economy

For those of you in the Toledo area, I wanted to make you aware of something that you and others you know might have an interest in. I am hosting a seminar on September 17th at CedarCreek’s Toledo campus (corner of Sylvania & Douglas) from 8 AM to Noon. The seminar is entitled Trusting God in This Economy. Ray Hilbert, http://truthatwork.org/ founder will be conducting the meeting which he has done in other cities around the country to rave revues.

I believe this will be a great encouragement and bring some much needed hope to those in the business community in our region.

I highly encourage you to attend and if you feel so led, would you be willing to share this with others? Thanks! I hope to see you there!

You can register here. Early bird pricing ends this Friday (Tickets are $39; after Friday they are $49)!