Most people never take advantage of God’s abundant resources. Eph. 3:20 in the Amplified Version says, "God is able to do superabundantly, far over and above, all that we dare ask or think. Infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thought, hopes, or dreams."
We never tap into the tremendous resources that God has made available to us.
Matthew 9:29 said: "According to you faith, it will be done to you." The key to unlocks all God wants to do in your life is really simple: It’s Faith.
The Law of Expectations says that, basically, we get what we expect out of life. We tend to see what we expect to see, we tend to feel what we expect to feel, we tend to act the way we expect to act, and eventually, we tend to achieve what we expect to achieve. Your expectations influence your happiness, they influence your health. Your expectations influence your relationships.
I. TWO APPROACHES TO LIFE
There are two approaches to life and you get the choice. You can choose to life by fear, or you can choose to live by faith. You can be an optimist, or you can be a pessimist. By faith or by fear.
Job was sometimes a pessimist, and in Job 3:25, he says, "Everything I fear and dread comes true." You know anybody like that? They focus on what they don’t want, not what they do want.
Paul on the other hand, was an optimist. And in Phil. 1:20, he says, "I live in eager expectation while I’m going through all these trials." He was an optimist. He could be cheerful even when life couldn’t be perfect.
When you expect the best, you’re honoring God. It also increases your ability when you’re expecting the best. Athletes know that the winning edge is attitude, not ability. It’s how you see it. Do you know that Mohammed Ali only lost two fights in his lifetime? And both of these fights had one thing in common different from all the other fights: in a press conference prior to the fight, he said, "Now, if I lose this fight..." It’s the only time he ever said it, and he lost them both.
David went out to fight Goliath and he took stones with him. Super confidence! Everybody else was saying, "He’s too big! We can’t kill him." David was saying, "He’s too big. I can’t miss!" Expecting the best. Not only that, expecting the best encourages others. Optimism is contagious.
II. HOW TO STAY OPTIMISTIC
How do you stay optimistic when everybody seems to be going wrong? Let me give you six steps:
A. Start Your Day with Faith
In order to stay optimistic when everything else seems to be going wrong, whether it’s at work or at school or in my finances or with my relationships, start your day with faith. Now you know, studies have shown that the first ten minutes of your day sets the tone.
Some of you may feel like Eeyore. You remember Eeyore? I’m reading from that great theologian, Winnie the Pooh. Eeyore the old donkey stood by the side of the stream and looked at himself in the water. "Pathetic," he said, "that’s what it is. Pathetic." He turned and walked down the stream twenty yards, splashed across and walked slowly back to the other side and he looked at himself in the water again. "As I thought" he said, no better from this side. But nobody minds. Nobody cares. Pathetic, that’s what it is. Then behind him Winnie the Pooh came in. "Good morning Eeyore, said Pooh. "Good morning," Pooh bear, said Eeyore gloomy, if it is good morning. Which I doubt!
Any of you identify with Eeyore? Look at this verse, Psalm 5:3, "In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice. In the morning I lay my request before you and I wait an expectation." Start your day in faith. Dont start your day with the morning news.
B. Look for the good in your situation
Not everything is good, but look for the good in the situation. Romans 8:28, "For those who love God, who are called according to his plan, everything that happens fits into a pattern for good." Circle that. "Pattern f or good." God specializes in bringing good out of bad.
You know that when Thomas Edison was sixty-seven years old, a great fire burned down his famous laboratories in New Jersey. And not only did he lose several million dollars in his equipment, he also loss his records to most of his life works. The next morning, he walked out among the charred embers and he said this: "There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew." He turned a stumbling block into a stepping stone. Look for the good in your situation.
C. Give your problems to God
So, what do I do when the situation looks impossible? Read these verses with me, 2 Cot. 1:8-11, "We were crushed and overwhelmed, and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves. But that was good, for then, we put everything into the hands of God for He can even raise the dead. And He did help us. And we expect Him to do it again and again." Give your problem to God. When it looks like it’s out of your control, you give it to God. Read also 1 Pet. 5:7
D. Eliminate negative words
Hove you ever talked yourself into feeling bad? "You know, I feel so tired." You know you can talk yourself into anything. You can make yourself sick. Eliminate negative words.
Negative words. The Bible has a lot to say about this. Eph. 4:29, read it with me. "Don’t use harmful words in talking. Use only helpful words. The kind that build up."
Now, it says there "use only". Circle the word "only". Use only helpful words. That means you should not have negative words in your vocabulary.
James 3:5, "The tongue is small thing. What enormous damage it can do. The tongue, the Bible says, is like a rudder on a ship. It’s small, but it sets the course of your life. Stop talking and focusing on what you don’t want and focus more on what you do want.
E. Associate with positive people
It is very important in discouraging times that you attach yourself to hopeful people. That’s one of the reasons why it’s good to join a good, warm, family church. Get around some positive people. Because the wrong crowd can bring you down. 1 Cor. 15:33, "Bad companions ruin good character." If you want to sour with the eagles, you can’t run with the turkeys. Psalm 1 says, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor sits in the seat of the scornful." Why, because like optimism is contagious, so is pessimism.
I think you need to know the difference between the VIP’s and VDP’s. VIP’s are Very Inspiring People. They lift you up. You need lots of them. VDP’s are Very Draining People. You don’t need many of them. You ought to have some just for a ministry.
F. Remember your future
When you are discouraged and you want to be optimistic, remember your future. The Bible calls it our blessed hope. That if you are a believer and you put your faith in Christ, the final chapter of your life is not written yet. This life is not the end. There is heaven. There is coming return of Jesus Christ. And heaven is what we’re waiting for.
There is a story about the old missionary couple who had been working in Africa for years and were returning to New York City to retire. They had no pension; their health was broken; they were defeated, discouraged and afraid. They discovered that they were booked on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big game hinting expeditions.
No one paid attention to them. They watched the fanfare that accompanied the president’s entourage, with the passengers trying to catch a glimpse of the great man.
As the ship moved across the ocean, the old missionary said to his wife, "something is wrong. Why should we have given our lives in faithful service for God in Africa all these many years and have no one care a thing about us? Here this man comes back from a hunting trip and everybody makes so much over him, but nobody gives two hoots about us."
When the ship docked in New York, a band was waiting to the great President. The Mayor and other dignitaries were there. The papers were full of the President’s arrival, but no one noticed this missionary couple. They slipped off the ship and found a cheap flat on the East side, hoping the next day to see what they could do to make a living in the city.
That night the man’s spirit broke. He said to his wife, "I can’t take this; God is not treating us fairly." His wife replied, "Why don’t you go in the bedroom and tell that to the Lord?"
A short time later he came out from the bedroom, but now his face was completely different. His wife asked, "Dear, what happened?"
"The Lord settled it with me," he said, "I told him how bitter I was that the President should received tremendous homecoming, when no one met us as we returned home. And when I finished, it seems as though the Lord put his arm on my shoulder and simply said, “But son, you’re not home yet!”
You won’t be in heaven for thirty seconds, if you’re believer, and you will say, “Why on earth did I get discouraged when I know what was coming? Why didn’t I serve more, pray more, give more, love more, be more what God wanted me to be?” You’re not home yet. Remember your future.
Now look again at these two verses of your outline. “God is able to do superabundantly, far over and above, all that we dare ask or think. Infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thought, hopes, or dreams." That’s almost like a blank check!
According to your faith, it will be done to you.
God bless!
