Keeping it simple!

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18(NKJV)

Rejoice always, 

pray without ceasing, 

in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Now here is a scripture to live by!

Nice and simple.  We spend a lot of time with God, studying scripture, looking for all sorts of deep life changing revelations in His word and it is good when we do that.  However sometimes it's nice to just focus on simpler things. 

Imagine how good life could be if we would follow these 3 simple steps.

Rejoice always - Live life in a joyful and happy spirit.  You know people like that.  They always seem to be in a good mood.  They can always make people smile.  How do you get to be that way?  Make the decision and then practice it.

I've heard this quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln but I don't know for sure.  I just think it is a great quote.   

"I imagine you'll be about as happy in life as you make up your mind to be."

I had a friend in high school who was like that.  You know, the kid that everyone liked.  Walking down the street he would say hi and smile at anyone and they would usually smile and say hi back.

God brought this to my attention way back then (around 9th or 10th grade) and inspired me to try and become more like my friend.  I started by just walking down the street in a different town and saying hi to people and smiling.  Even though I was a long hair hippie looking kid I found that I could get almost anyone to smile and say hi back.

Try this little experiment.  When you go through the drive thru, make it a point to look the person right in the eye and with a big smile wish them a great day or something like that.  You don't have to be weird about it or anything, just be genuine.  You'll be amazed at how you can get the grumpiest, surliest person to smile if you are genuine about it.

What a great yet simple way to be a blessing to others.

Now pray without ceasing.  If we pray without ceasing, how would we ever get anything else done?  Here's what pray without ceasing means to me.  For most of us, our major communication with God comes during "official" prayer time.  We check in and have our daily dialog with God and then we go about our day. 

But what about the rest of the day?  Are we having a running dialog with God throughout the day?  To me that is what pray without ceasing means.  God goes from being who we check in with once a day to being our friend and mentor that we runs things by all day long.  Imagine how much better life could be if we talked to God all day long instead of just in the morning!

And finally in everything give thanks.  Be ever thankful to God.  Thank Him for all of the blessings He gives us in life but also be mature enough to be thankful for the challenges we face, acknowledging that the challenges in life are where we get our biggest opportunities for growth as Christian human beings.  This is usually the biggest part of my prayer time because I am just so blown away and thankful for all that God has done in my life. 

Try memorizing this scripture and using it as your daily reminder of how to approach life for the next couple of weeks and see what type of difference it can make.  I think you will be pleasantly surprised!