Perseverance & Power of Positive Thinking

1. Perseverance & Power of Positive Thinking • We should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us. (2 Corinthians 2:9)

2. When you have a problem, one that is especially difficult and terribly discouraging, there is one basic principle to apply and keep on applying. It is simply this NEVER QUIT. To give up is to invite complete defeat. And not only in connection with the matter at hand. Giving up contributes to an ultimate defeat of the personality. It tends to develop a defeat psychology.

3. If you are facing an enormous mountain, how can you get on the other side of that mountain? • To go around it? It is too wide. • To dig a tunnel under it? It is too deep. • TO RISE ABOVE IT MENTALLY. • If a man can devise a mechanism that can fly forty thousand feet high-above mountains-he can come up with a type of thinking that can lift him above any mountainous difficulty.

4. The basic principle that • IT IS ALWAYS TOO SOON TO QUIT. • How can you develop this nonquitting, undefeatable attitude?

5. Never talk defeat, for if you do you can actually talk yourself into acceptance of defeat. • Begin saying good words, words like HOPE-BELIEF-FAITH-VICTORY. • It is very dangerous to use negative words, for example the word “NO”, it denotes a shutting of the door, it means failure, defeat, delay. But spell it backswords and take new hope, for backwards it spells “ON”. It gets you to push on toward your goals. • Change your thinking to meet problems in a positive, constructive way. And remember the persistence principle: IT IS ALWAYS TOO SOON TO QUIT.

6. To be effective, the persistence principle must be supported by another vital principle-the PERCEPTION principle. • When a person is defeated in his mind, he needs perception which is the insight to perceive the inner cause of his defeat. • He must have the insight and understanding concerning himself who and what he is. • He must perceive and cultivate his inner powers, then he can go on to a successful outcome.

7. The hardest person in the world to know is oneself as one of the greatest moments in anybody’s developing experience is when to get acquainted with himself as he really is. • People who fail usually do so not because they are unable to handle an outward situation-it is the inner or mental conflict that defeats them. • You must see yourself as you really are and deal with yourself on that honest basis. That is the perception principle, and it is based on self examination.

8. HOW CAN YOU SEE YOUR INNER SELF? • Ask The Lord Jesus Christ to show you • Get a good look inside yourself and start correcting what you see that was a mess. • You will get a power that project you to success.

9. Persistence motivated by perception releases new power and is the valid formula that leads to successful achievements.

10. A prominent speaker was speaking at a meeting in Michigan and he had another speech in Phoenix, Arizona. He had an early plane to Chicago and connect with a plane to Phoenix. That morning in Holland, Michigan, you could not see the car parked right outside the hotel room, that is how foggy it was, no planes were going out of the airport. He called Detroit and Minneapolis, it was fogged in as well! • He had a positive thinking session for himself, the people in Phoenix had booked him eight months before!

11. He rented a car, after sixty of the two hundred miles to Chicago, he encountered mechanical problems where he came to service station and they ended up putting new spark plugs. He tried starting the car, did not start, the battery was dead. The mechanic charged the battery and he headed to Chicago. After he arrived, he found that all planes were grounded however, another airline had planes going out, but, there was no space on it. When the plane was just about to take off, someone had failed to show up and he ended up taking the plane!!

12. If you start thinking it is hopeless, your state of mind will actually attract further trouble to defeat you! • The people who get on in this world are the people who look for the circumstances they want, if they can not find them, make them! • IT IS ALWAYS TOO SOON TO QUIT.

13. Every problem contains the seeds of its own solution. • People assume that a problem is inherently bad. Whereas on the contrary, a problem may be, and usually is, inherently good. • When the Lord wishes to give you a great value, how does He go about it? Does He wrap it in a glamorous and sophisticated package and hand it to you on a silver platter? No. • More likely He buries it at the heart of a great big, tough problem and watches whether you have what it takes to break the problem apart and find at its center.

14. “Wouldn’t life be simply wonderful if we had easier problems, or fewer problems, or no problems at all” But is that necessarily true? • There is one place on earth where people do not have any problems! • IT IS THE CEMETERY  • Problems constitute a sign of life, the more problems you have, the more alive you are.

15. If you have no problems at all, you are on the way out and do not know it. If this is your situation, go to your room and shut the door and get down on your knees and pray to the Lord, “Lord, please; look, do not you trust me anymore? Give me some problems!”. • If someone feels that he does not possess the ability to cope with the ordinary problems of human existence, this might reflect a sense of inadequacy and inferiority! • ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT TO EVERY DISADVANTAGE THERE IS A CORRESPONDING ADVANTAGE.

16. What to do when facing a problem: • Cool it, say to yourself, it is OK • Pray, through prayer you can draw upon the power of the Divine Mind where all wisdom reposes. • Prayer is actually a line of communication along which come insights and fresh understanding. • With two calm minds working on a problem; God’s mind and your mind, you will be given a solution. • Think, just think and think!

17. One of former presidents of the United States was once asked, don’t you ever get tense? You always seem very calm. • He replied, “I come to this office each morning and I stay for long hours doing what has to be done to the best of my ability. So when I go to bed at night, I turn it all over to the Lord and forget it.” • IF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES CAN SAY THAT YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE TENSE, THEN WHY SHOULD I BE UPTIGHT?

18. If you are uptight, there is a cure available! • This medicine is not taken by mouth but, rather, by mind! • “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). • Still another important secret of tension control is to become aware of all possible causes and sources of uptightness.

19. LOOK INSIDE! • Carefully consider your mental attitudes, your life style setup. • Do you fear new situations? • Do you feel inadequate? • Do you get depressed without knowing why? • Are you able to enjoy life’s simple pleasures or must you always have “exciting” people around and do crazy things to feel alive?

20. Anyone can handle his difficulties when he really learns to trust the Lord. Then he has the first secret of success. • So keep on believing in the Lord and have confidence. • BELIEVERS SWEEP EVERYTHING BEFORE THEM.

21. The individual who mentally visualizes himself achieving rather than failing and more importantly, who is wiling to pay the price of intensive study and sustained effort, advances toward his goal.

22. What are you afraid of? • There are a 101 different kind of fears. • Agoraphobia (fear of open spaces). • Claustrophobia (fear of enclosed places). • Acrophobia (fear of high places). • To overcome fear is important if you want to live effectively and be a happy person.

23. How to handle fear? • Start the process of canceling out FEAR with FAITH, for there is no force in this world more powerful than FAITH. • FAITH is the only cure for FEAR. • FAITH releases unsuspected powers. • Determine never to be pushed around by your FEARS. • Stand up to your FEARS mentally and deny them the power to dominate you.

24. A Paratrooper said, “The first time I jumped from a plane everything in me resisted. • All there was between death and me was a piece of cord and a little patch of silk and I was afraid. • When I found out for myself that the patch of silk would hold me, I had the most marvelous and glorious feeling that I was not afraid of anything.”

25. When you are afraid of something, do not let yourself be hung up in imaginings concerning it; rather, take summary action; attack it hard. The harder you strike, the more quickly and surely the fear will subside.

26. It has been said that self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom and it is also the beginning of a cure. • For actual healing of fear, old fears must be replaced with something positive, a strong faith. • At this point spiritual therapy is important to strengthen faith. • REMEMBER THAT FEAR IS STRONG, VERY STORNG. HOWEVER, FAITH IS STRONGER, MUCH STRONGER. AND FAITH IN DUE COURSE CAN DRIVE OUT FEAR.

27. A story of someone struggling with a disease: This man attacked his illness with the same businesslike manner in which he dealt with all his affairs. He proceeded to fit the treatments into his daily schedule and remained on top of the situation. He was asked, “At any time during this experience, were you afraid?” He replied, “Yes, there was a minute or two when I was afraid. That was when my temperature stayed very high for two days. However, I said that I am confident that the doctors on my case are doing the right thing. And if they were not, I would still be in good hands. God is always looking after me.”