Number 87:  December 20, 2006

The snow is falling quite heavily. The winds are howling quite extensively. The holiday season is quite upon us. The airports are all quite closed. And my plane leaves tomorrow. That makes it a perfect time to lose control and fall into a bad mental mood. Well, maybe not! It is available to control what you think, even under quite hectic duress.

It is easier though to control one’s thinking patterns if you are feasting on a steady diet of God’s Word. It is mind nourishment that will quite help during these quite hectic days.

Romans 12:2:

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

It is impossible to think two things at once. You cannot watch two things on television at the same time no matter how good you are with the remote. There is only one picture on the screen at one time. Your mind can be like that. It can flip back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth. We need to concentrate on keeping our minds under control by thinking the thoughts from God’s Word so we can manifest peace at all times.

Isaiah 26:3:

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.  

One of the keys to doing this is to be of good cheer. Since it is impossible to think two things at once, when you are of good cheer, you will not be of negative cheer. Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had some insight into this mindset.

John 16:33:

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Jesus exhorted his disciples to be of good cheer in this world because he had overcome the power of the wicked one. The result of a mind stayed on God’s Word is peace.

EW Bullinger defines the statement “of good cheer” as being “well-minded, well-disposed, benign; cheerful.” The term “to be of good cheer,” he defines as “to be of good courage, take courage, cheer up.” Another Greek word translated in English the same way is defined as “to be of a cheerful mind, to be in good spirits.”

Now, that is the way to approach life today, with a cheerful mind, being in good spirits. After all we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings and no matter how bad the weather is Christ is still coming back.